Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for analyzing historical data in a data warehouse. A data warehouse is provided. The data warehouse includes several database tables. Every database table has a start time column and an end time column. A query is issued to the data warehouse. The query includes customized query predicates against the start time column values and end time column values of a database table. A response is received from the data warehouse. The response includes table records satisfying the query and having valid (START_TIME, END_TIME) ranges that cover a fixed time point specified by the customized query predicates of the query. Methods for updating a database table in a data warehouse, and a data warehouse system are also described.