MySQL 5.0 and higher offers nine storage engines and more are likely to be added in the future. The most commonly used are MyISAM, InnoDB, and Berkeley DB (
BDB). Each storage engine offers special features and advantages. You can even use different formats for each table in your database, though it may be harder to manage a mixed format database. Better is to keep all tables in a database using the same storage engine, but use different engines for different databases.
To determine which storage engines your server supports, run following
SHOW ENGINES; statement. The value in the Support column indicates whether an engine can be used. A value of
YES,
NO, or
DEFAULT indicates that an engine is available, not available, or available and currently set as the default storage engine.
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source:http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2010/12/135781677512266.html