What are MySQL Storage Engines?

A storage engine is the part of MySQL that decides how a table stores, reads and locks its data. You can choose an engine for each table.

Engine	Features	Use
InnoDB (default)	Transactions, foreign keys, row locking, crash recovery	Almost everything
MyISAM	Fast reads, table locking, no transactions or foreign keys. Old	Rare, old systems
MEMORY	Keeps data in RAM. Lost on restart	Temporary fast tables
CSV	Stores data in CSV files	Data exchange
ARCHIVE	Compressed, only INSERT and SELECT	Logs

CREATE TABLE logs (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  message TEXT
) ENGINE = InnoDB;

SHOW ENGINES;                       -- list of engines
SHOW TABLE STATUS WHERE Name = 'logs';   -- engine of a table

Use InnoDB unless you have a special reason. It is needed for transactions and foreign keys.

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