what are the main differences between all the mysql engines?

Question

Hi folks, I want to make a summary of the main differences between all the Mysql engines and of course the most populars also.

And what criteria should I use to determine which engine to use?

Best to all,

Answer 1

The MySQL documentation has a good summary of all the engines and their differences:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.4/en/storage-engines.html

Answer 2

They are very well described here:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/storage-engines.html

Use InnoDB, if you're in doubt. It is general-purpose and performs well.

Answer 3

You should take a look to the manual, like Lars and Phil said.

Although, i could tell you in short, the differences between the primaries engines (MyISAM and innoDB) are in Transaction support, foraing key support, Locking level (MyISAM locks the entire table, innoDB has row level locking), and MVCC. There are too much many differences between them. I recommend you to take a look at: Pro MySQL Apress 2005.

-- Santiago Basulto.-