7.5. InnoDB Tables

7.5.1. InnoDB Tables Overview

InnoDB provides MySQL with a transaction-safe (ACID-compliant) table handler with commit, rollback, and crash recovery capabilities. InnoDB does locking on row level and also provides an Oracle-style consistent non-locking read in SELECTs. These features increase multi-user concurrency and performance. There is no need for lock escalation in InnoDB because row level locks in InnoDB fit in very little space. InnoDB tables support FOREIGN KEY constraints as the first table type in MySQL.

InnoDB has been designed for maximum performance when processing large data volumes. Its CPU efficiency is probably not matched by any other disk-based relational database engine.