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    1.4.3. The Main Features of MySQL

    This section describes some of the important characteristics of the MySQL Database Software. See also Section 1.5, “MySQL Development Roadmap”, for more information about current and upcoming features. In most respects, it applies to all versions of MySQL. For information about features as they are introduced into MySQL on a series-specific basis, see the “In a Nutshell” section of the appropriate Manual:

    Internals and Portability:

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    • Written in C and C++.

    • Tested with a broad range of different compilers.

    • Works on many different platforms. See Section 2.1.1, “Operating Systems Supported by MySQL Community Server”.

    • Uses GNU Automake, Autoconf, and Libtool for portability.

    • The MySQL Server design is multi-layered with independent modules.

    • Fully multi-threaded using kernel threads. It can easily use multiple CPUs if they are available.

    • Provides transactional and non-transactional storage engines.

    • Uses very fast B-tree disk tables (MyISAM) with index compression.

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    • Relatively easy to add other storage engines. This is useful if you want to provide an SQL interface for an in-house database.

    • A very fast thread-based memory allocation system.

    • Very fast joins using an optimized one-sweep multi-join.

    • In-memory hash tables, which are used as temporary tables.

    • SQL functions are implemented using a highly optimized class library and should be as fast as possible. Usually there is no memory allocation at all after query initialization.

    • The MySQL code is tested with Purify (a commercial memory leakage detector) as well as with Valgrind, a GPL tool (http://developer.kde.org/~sewardj/).

    • The server is available as a separate program for use in a client/server networked environment. It is also available as a library that can be embedded (linked) into standalone applications. Such applications can be used in isolation or in environments where no network is available.

    Data Types:

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    • Many data types: signed/unsigned integers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 bytes long, FLOAT, DOUBLE, CHAR, VARCHAR, TEXT, BLOB, DATE, TIME, DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, YEAR, SET, ENUM, and OpenGIS spatial types. See Chapter 10, Data Types.

    • Fixed-length and variable-length records.

    Statements and Functions:

    • Full operator and function support in the SELECT list and WHERE clause of queries. For example: 

      mysql> 
SELECT CONCAT(first_name, ' ', last_name)
    -> 
FROM citizen
    -> 
WHERE income/dependents > 10000 AND age > 30;

    • Full support for SQL GROUP BY and ORDER BY clauses. Support for group functions (COUNT(), COUNT(DISTINCT ...), AVG(), STD(), SUM(), MAX(), MIN(), and GROUP_CONCAT()).

    • Support for LEFT OUTER JOIN and RIGHT OUTER JOIN with both standard SQL and ODBC syntax.

    • Support for aliases on tables and columns as required by standard SQL.

    • DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, and UPDATE return the number of rows that were changed (affected). It is possible to return the number of rows matched instead by setting a flag when connecting to the server.

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    • The MySQL-specific SHOW statement can be used to retrieve information about databases, storage engines, tables, and indexes. MySQL 5.0 adds support for the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database, implemented according to standard SQL.

    • The EXPLAIN statement can be used to determine how the optimizer resolves a query.

    • Function names do not clash with table or column names. For example, ABS is a valid column name. The only restriction is that for a function call, no spaces are allowed between the function name and the “(” that follows it. See Section 8.3, “Reserved Words”.

    • You can refer to tables from different databases in the same statement.

    Security:

    • A privilege and password system that is very flexible and secure, and that allows host-based verification.

    • Passwords are secure because all password traffic is encrypted when you connect to a server.

    Scalability and Limits:

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    • Handles large databases. We use MySQL Server with databases that contain 50 million records. We also know of users who use MySQL Server with 60,000 tables and about 5,000,000,000 rows.

    • Up to 64 indexes per table are allowed (32 before MySQL 4.1.2). Each index may consist of 1 to 16 columns or parts of columns. The maximum index width is 1000 bytes (767 for InnoDB); before MySQL 4.1.2, the limit is 500 bytes. An index may use a prefix of a column for CHAR, VARCHAR, BLOB, or TEXT column types.

    Connectivity:

    • Clients can connect to MySQL Server using several protocols:

      • Clients can connect using TCP/IP sockets on any platform.

      • On Windows systems in the NT family (NT, 2000, XP, 2003, or Vista), clients can connect using named pipes if the server is started with the --enable-named-pipe option. In MySQL 4.1 and higher, Windows servers also support shared-memory connections if started with the --shared-memory option. Clients can connect through shared memory by using the --protocol=memory option.

      • On Unix systems, clients can connect using Unix domain socket files.

    • MySQL client programs can be written in many languages. A client library written in C is available for clients written in C or C++, or for any language that provides C bindings.

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    • APIs for C, C++, Eiffel, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl are available, allowing MySQL clients to be written in many languages. See Chapter 27, APIs and Libraries.

    • The Connector/ODBC (MyODBC) interface provides MySQL support for client programs that use ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) connections. For example, you can use MS Access to connect to your MySQL server. Clients can be run on Windows or Unix. MyODBC source is available. All ODBC 2.5 functions are supported, as are many others. See Chapter 28, Connectors.

    • The Connector/J interface provides MySQL support for Java client programs that use JDBC connections. Clients can be run on Windows or Unix. Connector/J source is available. See Chapter 28, Connectors.

    • MySQL Connector/NET enables developers to easily create .NET applications that require secure, high-performance data connectivity with MySQL. It implements the required ADO.NET interfaces and integrates into ADO.NET aware tools. Developers can build applications using their choice of .NET languages. MySQL Connector/NET is a fully managed ADO.NET driver written in 100% pure C#. See Chapter 28, Connectors.

    Localization:

    MySQL Enterprise.  For assistance in getting optimal performance from your MySQL server subscribe to MySQL Enterprise. For more information see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/.

    Clients and Tools:

    • MySQL AB provides several client and utility programs. These include both command-line programs such as mysqldump and mysqladmin, and graphical programs such as MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query Browser.

    • MySQL Server has built-in support for SQL statements to check, optimize, and repair tables. These statements are available from the command line through the mysqlcheck client. MySQL also includes myisamchk, a very fast command-line utility for performing these operations on MyISAM tables. See Chapter 4, MySQL Programs.

    • MySQL programs can be invoked with the --help or -? option to obtain online assistance.


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