If we need to enable SharePoint list versioning then navigate List Settings–>Versioning settings and then select radio button of create a version each time you edit an item in this list? Section, optionally limit the number of versions to retain is help to reduce DB size, SharePoint list does not support minor version and draft version.
We can also enable SharePoint List versioning using c#
using (SPSite spsite = new SPSite("http://win7/"))
{
SPWeb spweb = spsite.OpenWeb();
SPList list = spweb.Lists["CustomList"];
list.EnableVersioning = true;
list.Update();
}
Retrieve SPListItem versions using c#
using (SPSite spsite = new SPSite("http://win7/"))
{
SPWeb spweb = spsite.OpenWeb();
SPListItemCollection listitems = spweb.GetList("http://win7/Lists/CustomList").Items;
foreach (SPListItem listitem in listitems)
{
//listitem.Versions.RestoreByID(5);
foreach (SPListItemVersion versionItem in listitem.Versions)
{
Console.WriteLine("VersionId :" + versionItem.VersionId);
Console.WriteLine("VersionLabel :" + versionItem.VersionLabel);
Console.WriteLine("IsCurrentVersion :" + versionItem.IsCurrentVersion);
Console.WriteLine("ListItem.Title :" + versionItem.ListItem.Title);
Console.WriteLine("Created :" + versionItem.Created);
Console.WriteLine("CreatedBy :" + versionItem.CreatedBy);
Console.WriteLine("Level :" + versionItem.Level);
}
}
}
Retrieve SPListItem version changes using c#
using (SPSite spsite = new SPSite("http://win7/"))
{
SPWeb spweb = spsite.OpenWeb();
SPListItemCollection listitems = spweb.GetList("http://win7/Lists/CustomList").Items;
foreach (SPListItem listitem in listitems)
{
for (int i = 0; i < listitem.Versions.Count - 1; i++)
{
SPListItemVersion oldVersion = listitem.Versions[i];
SPListItemVersion latestVersion = listitem.Versions[i + 1];
foreach (SPField field in oldVersion.Fields)
{
if (field.ShowInVersionHistory == false)
{
continue;
}
if (latestVersion == null)
{
Console.WriteLine(" > {0} changed to \"{1}\"",
field.StaticName, oldVersion[field.StaticName]);
continue;
}
if (oldVersion[field.StaticName].Equals(latestVersion[field.StaticName]))
{
continue;
}
Console.WriteLine(" > {0} changed from \"{1}\" to \"{2}\"",
field.StaticName, latestVersion[field.StaticName], oldVersion[field.StaticName]);
}
}
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
Ravichandran Blog 