ArcSDE provides three APIs for accessing data in a versioned database: C, Java, and SQL.

The ArcSDE C and Java Versioning APIs provide full access to the version and state objects. This C Versioning API follows the traditional ArcSDE API coding conventions, providing SE_versioninfo and SE_stateinfo objects for accessing version and state properties. The standard ArcSDE alter, create, delete, and list functions are provided for states and versions, as well as specialized methods for these objects. The Java API provides the same functionality as the C API. A few additional functions are provided in the APIs for setting versions on stream queries, to set difference filters on stream queries, and to determine if an ArcSDE registered table is versioned.

The Native SQL access provides a single SQL Stored Procedure to set the desired version. All insert, update, delete, and query operations are processed against that version. For information on SQL functions for ST_Geometry in Oracle and PostgreSQL, see the ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS Desktop help section SQL functions reference. For SQL functions for DB2, Informix, Oracle Spatial, or Microsoft SQL Server spatial types, consult the documentation for those products. However, be aware that SQL functions are not aware of versioning; they do not automatically update the delta tables. To work with versioned data using SQL you must use multiversioned views.