Mysql Table Types

MySQL has six distinct table types.

• MyISAM
• MERGE
• ISAM
• HEAP
• InnoDB
• BDB or BerkeleyDB Tables

The default table type for MySQL is MyISAM. It has table level locking., doesn't support transaction.

BDB uses Page level locking, supports transaction.

innoDB uses Row level locking. supports transaction.

HEAP tables use hashed indexes and are stored in memory. This makes them very fast.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/storage-engines.html