An apparatus and method includes a database journal that records journal entries.
Each journal entry includes a validation value that is computed from the data and
metadata for the record before it is changed. In this manner, journal entries may
be applied with confidence to a record in a database. This is especially useful
when minimized data journal entries are used. If the validation value of the journal
entry matches the validation value computed from the data and metadata of the record
that the journal entry is to be applied to, then the record before applying the
journal entry is identical to the record in the original database, and the journal
data may be applied to the database record. If the validation value of the journal
entry does not match the validation value computed from the data and metadata of
the record that the journal entry is to be applied to, the record is not the same
as in the original database when the journal entry was generated. As a result,
an error message is generated to indicate that an error was encountered when applying
the journal entry. In this manner, the apparatus and method of the preferred embodiments
automatically validate a database record before applying journal data to the record.