Validation Tables and Constraints

Question

Ok, here is an interesting question. If you had validation tables such as building codes with their translations, or person type codes, or sorority codes, or anything that has changing codes that are valid and invalid over the years --- that your database application used with data – this person lives in this building code and it goes to get the long translation from the validation table ( a whole bunch of them) and you wanted to increase the efficiency of such validation tables so that you could put a STATUS (old – do not use now but valid for old data, active use now for new data), how would you go about doing this en masse for the whole database and all of the validation tables?
Would a constraint work, user defined? And how? Or how would you most efficiently go about this?

Answer 1

Ability to deactivate old values in validation tables but leave them for integrity of historical data
VALIDATION - include the ability to inactivate old values in the validation tables so that these values can be in the database for “old” rows (records) but cannot be used for new rows (records).
The fact to leave the old value in there is for referential integrity for the old data values but show they are inactive and to only allow new data to be added with CURRENT valid values. No matter what you tell the people entering the data, if a value is valid for entry they will enter even if it has not been used for years
How to do this most efficiently with constraints now or will we have to add triggers to every piece of update and insert code?