4 ms·

MySQL: the Pros and Cons of MyISAM Tables

4 points by ajbatac 18y ago

batasrki 18y ago
Very basic explanation of the pros and cons. It assumes a total beginner audience. I think that the lack of foreign key constraints and transaction support needs to be emphasized more, especially considering who the audience is.
mdasen 18y ago
Not a good article at all. It makes MyISAM sound good which just isn't the case. MyISAM is good for read-only tables. It has very fast reads. Once you start getting writes, it crumbles. Since most web applications today have a decent amount of writes, MyISAM isn't that good. So what is MyISAM good for? Well, let's say that you have a table of post codes. Maybe you want to add new ones every month, but for general purposes, it's read-only. You'll get MyISAM's speed for reads and writes won't matter. On the other hand, say you're making a site like HN. In that case, you constantly have writes (votes, submissions, comments) and locking the table isn't an option as it would just crumble. The article says that MyISAM is good if your application "has to be fast". That isn't true. Most applications would be faster with InnoDB. This article takes a completely inaccurate approach to databases. So, they'll be lots of people who read this and think, "faster is better, therefore I'll use MyISAM," when such a choice will give them lots of speed problems as users start using their app.
- truebosko 18y ago
  Great explanation. Would you recommend mixing InnoDB and MyISAM tables within a database based on read/write levels of certain tables? My general knowledge of databases says Yes, no problem but having much less experience, I figure it won't hurt to ask.
  - jkmcf 18y ago
    From what I've read, NEVER mix InnoDB and MyISAM tables in the same database. Update: While they don't say never, they don't recommend it. Managing backups gets a lot harder. Also, you should never mix innodb and myisam tables within a transaction, which is probably what I was attaching never to. http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/01/12/should-you-move-from-myisam-to-innodb/ http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/01/12/should-you-mo...

4 points by ajbatac 18y ago

Very basic explanation of the pros and cons. It assumes a total beginner audience. I think that the lack of foreign key constraints and transaction support needs to be emphasized more, especially considering who the audience is.

mdasen 18y ago

Not a good article at all. It makes MyISAM sound good which just isn't the case. MyISAM is good for read-only tables. It has very fast reads. Once you start getting writes, it crumbles. Since most web applications today have a decent amount of writes, MyISAM isn't that good. So what is MyISAM good for? Well, let's say that you have a table of post codes. Maybe you want to add new ones every month, but for general purposes, it's read-only. You'll get MyISAM's speed for reads and writes won't matter. On the other hand, say you're making a site like HN. In that case, you constantly have writes (votes, submissions, comments) and locking the table isn't an option as it would just crumble. The article says that MyISAM is good if your application "has to be fast". That isn't true. Most applications would be faster with InnoDB. This article takes a completely inaccurate approach to databases. So, they'll be lots of people who read this and think, "faster is better, therefore I'll use MyISAM," when such a choice will give them lots of speed problems as users start using their app.

truebosko 18y ago
Great explanation. Would you recommend mixing InnoDB and MyISAM tables within a database based on read/write levels of certain tables? My general knowledge of databases says Yes, no problem but having much less experience, I figure it won't hurt to ask.
- jkmcf 18y ago
  From what I've read, NEVER mix InnoDB and MyISAM tables in the same database. Update: While they don't say never, they don't recommend it. Managing backups gets a lot harder. Also, you should never mix innodb and myisam tables within a transaction, which is probably what I was attaching never to. http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/01/12/should-you-move-from-myisam-to-innodb/ http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/01/12/should-you-mo...