The problem can be managed somewhat depending on the language and tooling. I have used this advice for archived_at or deleted_at before. In the database it’s a

The problem can be managed somewhat depending on the language and tooling. I have used this advice for archived_at or deleted_at before. In the database it’s a NULLable timestamp column. In application code I would map this field to an Instant? (Kotlin) and a computed isArchived val that checks for presence of the archivedAt field.