How do you determine data retention duration and manage object lifetime when working with a database?

The duration of data storage and object lifetime management in a database are usually determined at the schema and application business logic level.

• Databases can use TTL (Time To Live) or archiving policies for automatic deletion or movement of outdated data.
• In C#, when working with ORM (e.g., Entity Framework), object lifetime is controlled by the data context: objects exist in memory as long as the DbContext is active.
• To manage data lifetime, you can implement logic for deletion or archiving based on creation/update date.

Example with Entity Framework:

using(var context = new MyDbContext())
{
    var oldRecords = context.Records.Where(r => r.CreatedDate < DateTime.Now.AddYears(-1));
    context.Records.RemoveRange(oldRecords);
    context.SaveChanges();
}

Thus, data lifetime management is a combination of database settings and application business logic.