Provided is a method, system, and program for updating data in a database table in response to requests from a requesting application comprising one of a first application at a first version level and a second application at a second version level. The first application recognizes the table as including a subset of columns in the table that is less than all the columns in the table and the second application recognizes the table as including all the columns in the table. A request is received from the requesting application for specified columns from one record in the table and the requested record is accessed. A data structure is generated including data from the specified columns in the requested record. A determination is made as to whether the requesting application is capable of recognizing all the columns in the table. If so, data from each column in the table that is not one of the subset of columns is added to the data structure. The data structure is returned to the requesting application.