Storage engines (or table types) are a part of core MySQL and are responsible for handling operations on tables. MySQL provides several storage engines, and the two most widely used are MyISAM and InnoDB. Both these storage engines have their own pros and cons, but InnoDB is always prioritized. MySQL started using InnoDB as the default storage engine, starting from 5.5.
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MySQL provides some other storage engines that have their own purposes. During the database design process, which table should use which storage engine can be decided. A complete list of storage engines for MySQL 5.6 can be found at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/storage-engines.html.
A storage engine can be set at database level, which is then used as the default storage engine for each newly created table. Note that the storage engine is the table's base, and different tables can have different storage engines in a single database. What if we have a table already created and want to change its...