15.2.3.1 Static (Fixed-Length) Table Characteristics

Static format is the default for MyISAM tables. It is used when the table contains no variable-length columns (VARCHAR, VARBINARY, BLOB, or TEXT). Each row is stored using a fixed number of bytes.

Of the three MyISAM storage formats, static format is the simplest and most secure (least subject to corruption). It is also the fastest of the on-disk formats due to the ease with which rows in the data file can be found on disk: To look up a row based on a row number in the index, multiply the row number by the row length to calculate the row position. Also, when scanning a table, it is very easy to read a constant number of rows with each disk read operation.

The security is evidenced if your computer crashes while the MySQL server is writing to a fixed-format MyISAM file. In this case, myisamchk can easily determine where each row starts and ends, so it can usually reclaim all rows except the partially written one. MyISAM table indexes can always be reconstructed based on the data rows.

Note

Fixed-length row format is only available for tables without BLOB or TEXT columns. Creating a table with these columns with an explicit ROW_FORMAT clause does not raise an error or warning; the format specification is ignored.

Static-format tables have these characteristics:

• CHAR and VARCHAR columns are space-padded to the specified column width, although the column type is not altered. BINARY and VARBINARY columns are padded with 0x00 bytes to the column width.

• NULL columns require additional space in the row to record whether their values are NULL. Each NULL column takes one bit extra, rounded up to the nearest byte.

• Very quick.

• Easy to cache.

• Easy to reconstruct after a crash, because rows are located in fixed positions.

• Reorganization is unnecessary unless you delete a huge number of rows and want to return free disk space to the operating system. To do this, use OPTIMIZE TABLE or myisamchk -r.

• Usually require more disk space than dynamic-format tables.

• The expected row length in bytes for static-sized rows is calculated using the following expression:

  row length = 1
               + (sum of column lengths)
               + (number of NULL columns + delete_flag + 7)/8
               + (number of variable-length columns)

  delete_flag is 1 for tables with static row format. Static tables use a bit in the row record for a flag that indicates whether the row has been deleted. delete_flag is 0 for dynamic tables because the flag is stored in the dynamic row header.