title: Fastest way to identify differences between two tables?
body: <p>I have a need to check a live table against a transactional archive table and I'm unsure of the fastest way to do this...</p>
  
  <p>For instance, let's say my live table is made up of these columns:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Term</li>
  <li>CRN</li>
  <li>Fee</li>
  <li>Level Code</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My archive table would have the same columns, but also have an archive date so I can see what values the live table had at a given date.</p>
  
  <p>Now... How would I write a query to ensure that the values for the live table are the same as the most recent entries in the archive table?</p>
  
  <p>PS  I'd prefer to handle this in SQL, but PL/SQL is also an option if it's faster.</p>