Chapter 28. MySQL Storage Engines and Data Types

Taking time to properly design your project's table structures is key to its success. Neglecting to do so can have dire consequences not only on storage requirements, but also on application performance, maintainability, and data integrity. In this chapter, you'll become better acquainted with the many facets of MySQL table design. By its conclusion, you will be familiar with the following topics:

• The purpose, advantages, disadvantages, and relevant configuration parameters of MySQL's key storage engines, namely ARCHIVE, BLACKHOLE, CSV, EXAMPLE, FEDERATED, InnoDB, MEMORY (formerly HEAP), MERGE, and MyISAM.

• The purpose and range of MySQL's supported data types. To facilitate later reference, these data types are broken into three categories: date and time, numeric, and textual.

• MySQL's table attributes, which serve to further modify the behavior of a data column.

• The MySQL commands used to create, modify, navigate, review, and alter both databases and tables.