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In versioning (e.g. software, documents, ...) a "version" or "revision" typically starts at 0 or 1 and increments with every change. The newest document is the one with highest version number.

I have a system where it is beneficial to do it the opposite way, newest document is saved as version 0 and the version of all the older documents is incremented. However, calling it a "version" may be misleading because it behaves opposite of the usual. Is there better word? Two words could work too.

Note that this is not something visible to the user, just trying to pick better term to use internally.

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    I don't think this is common enough for a specific word to exist for it, honestly.
    – Toby Speight
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 15:33
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    Could you provide a sample sentence, please? It's not entirely clear what you want. Do you want something which describes/names the zeroth version? Or something which describes/names the system of using zero as the latest version? Do you need an adjective or a noun? I agree with @TobySpeight that it's uncommon, but someone might come up with something which fits your need.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 15:42
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    That said, I can see the merit in always having a fixed number for the latest version. A frame challenge would be -- Since you have to renumber everything every time a new version 0 is issued, why not renumber them -1, -2, -3, so that the latest version is still the highest number?
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 15:46
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    This sounds like a file overwrite accident waiting to happen.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 16:05
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    We're used to the age system of labelling (as oerkelens points out) but there is always a a more fixed label for the entity ('Euphonia Gage', say, even if 'née Green'). As TH says, this could lead to confusion as all previous entries are frequently renamed. Not a typical labelling strategy.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 16:54

4 Answers 4

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So if we start with a version of a document, when a new version is published, the original one has a property that increases, we seem to be looking for something that increases over time.

I would say the most commonly used concept that fits that description is age.

Whether you measure that age in years (as with humans), days or versions, it always does increase over time, and gives an intuitive idea of the relevance of the version you are looking at.

If you are looking at a name for your database column, you could consider version_age of simply age, though the latter will require good documentation - then again, this kind of numbering has to be documented well anyway, since it is uncommon.

Also consider that if you have many versions, you have to update many records when you add a new version. This may or may not be give rise to a performance concern. (The positive pay-off is that finding the current version is slightly quicker than with traditional versioning.)

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  • Yes, "age" is what came to mind for me.
    – psmears
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 16:47
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Might not be exactly what you're looking for but..

Increment

Means to increase and the reverse of that is

Decrement

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/decrement

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  • This isn't really related to the question.
    – alphabet
    Commented Feb 10, 2023 at 22:26
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Have you considered using the date as the version number? This way the current document can always be version 0 and when it is replaced its version number is changed to its creation date and the new document assumes version 0. Then you wouldn't have to renumber every version in the DB and users wouldn't be confused if they have to refer to an older version, it will always be, say, 23042021. This has the additional advantage that you know for what period a particular version was valid.
As for a database column name, "version date" may be OK.

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How about something to do with ancestry or pedigree.

It seems that they latest is the newborn and the older versions are its prior generations or ancestors Ancestor 1, Ancestor 2, etc

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