Could somebody please tell about the various types of DB tables of MySQL like

MyISAM
ISAM
Heap
Berkely DB
Merge etc. What is the significance of this ? Which one of this will be fastest in terms of retrieval / storage ?

Thanks

Madhu

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One of the main difference is that MyISAM, ISAM, HEAP, Merge are all NON TRANSACTION SAFE tables where InnoDB and Berkely DB ARE transaction safe. (i.e. they use a transaction logs.) There are definite benefits to both. Completeness and integrity of the data is a benefit of of a Transaction Safe table type. If there is/was a problem with a transaction, it's easy to undo ALL changes as a result. The cost is typically overhead of performance and space for the transaction logs.

The Non Transaction Safe tables are (generally) quicker without the overhead of a transaction log (gaining some performance and drive space) but if there is a problems, entries to some tables are permanant even though others failed.

You can read more about it at http://docs.biostat.wustl.edu/cgi-bi...able%2520types


Paul Gardner
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