Master data

Hello,

I have a master data with date_from and date_to fields for slow changing dimension purpose. When I load data BW will create 2 records, why? lets say I load the data on 04/18/2005. BW creates two records

To_date From _date

-

-

04/17/2005 01/01/1000

12/31/9999 04/18/2005

Why 2 records? and why is some of the attributes for the 1st record are null?

This master table is used in an ODS also when reporting on the ODS, BW pulls in the 1st record with the NULL attributes why?

Is this a bug? Please help me how to go about fixing this.