What is the MySQL storage engine? (detailed explanation)

This article mainly introduces to you what is the MySQL storage engine. You can also refer to MySQL Video Tutorial or MySQL Manual to learn.

MySQL has a variety of storage engines. Each storage engine has its own advantages and disadvantages. You can choose the best one to use: MyISAM, InnoDB, MERGE, MEMORY (HEAP), BDB (BerkeleyDB), EXAMPLE, FEDERATED, ARCHIVE ,CSV,BLACKHOLE.

MySQL supports several storage engines as processors for different table types. The MySQL storage engine includes an engine for processing transaction-safe tables and an engine for processing non-transaction-safe tables:

MyISAM manages non-transaction tables. It provides high-speed storage and retrieval, as well as full-text search capabilities. MyISAM is supported in all MySQL configurations and is the default storage engine unless you configure MySQL to use another engine by default.

MEMORY storage engine provides "in-memory" tables. The MERGE storage engine allows collections to be processed on the same MyISAM table as a single table. Just like MyISAM, the MEMORY and MERGE storage engines handle non-transactional tables, and both engines are included in MySQL by default.

Note: The MEMORY storage engine is officially identified as the HEAP engine.

　InnoDB and BDB storage engines provide transaction-safe tables. BDB is included in MySQL-Max binary distributions released for operating systems that support it. InnoDB is also included by default in all MySQL 5.1 binary distributions, and you can configure MySQL to allow or disable either engine according to your preference.
The EXAMPLE storage engine is a "stub" engine, it does nothing. You can create tables with this engine, but no data is stored in or retrieved from them. The purpose of this engine is to serve as an example in the MySQL source code, which demonstrates how to start writing a new storage engine. Again, its main interest is to developers.

NDB Cluster is the storage engine used by MySQL Cluster to implement tables split into multiple computers. It is provided in the MySQL-Max 5.1 binary distribution. This storage engine is currently only supported by Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X. In a future MySQL distribution, we would like to add support for this engine on other platforms, including Windows.

The ARCHIVE storage engine is used to cover large amounts of stored data very lightly without indexing.

The CSV storage engine stores data in text files in comma-delimited format.

The BLACKHOLE storage engine accepts but does not store data, and retrieval always returns an empty set.

FEDERATED storage engine stores data in a remote database. In MySQL 5.1, it only works with MySQL, using the MySQL C Client API. In a future distribution, we want to have it connect to additional data sources using other drivers or client connection methods.

When you create a new table, you can tell MySQL what type of table you want to create by adding an ENGINE or TYPE option to the CREATE TABLE statement:

　CREATE TABLE t (i INT) ENGINE = INNODB;
　　　　CREATE TABLE t (i INT) TYPE = MEMORY;

Although TYPE is still there Supported in MySQL 5.1, ENGINE is now the preferred term.

This article is an introduction to the MySQL storage engine. I hope it will be helpful to friends in need!

The above is the detailed content of What is the MySQL storage engine? (detailed explanation). For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!