MySQL allows to select a different king of engine on a per table basis at creation time of each table. Each engine has its advantages and caveats. Here is a brief summary:
- MyISAM: fastest disk based, least space requirement, non-transactional, slow crash recovery
- InnoDB: slowest engine, transactional, fastest crash recovery
- HEAP:fastest overall engine, limited by live memory, limited attribute types, no crash recovery
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