What is a Database engine & Storage Engine?

A database engine (or storage engine) is the underlying software component that a database management system (DBMS) uses to create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) data from a database.

Lay-man terms

We can consider a database engine as a library that takes care of the on-disk storage and CRUD. DBMS can use the database engine and build features on top.

Examples: server, replication, isolation, stored procedures, etc.

I hope now you got an idea of what is database engine?. let continue with what are the available engines & how to use them for your best needs.

Types of Storage Engines

Some DBMS gives you the flexibility to switch engines like MySQL & MariaDB.but, DBMSs like Postgres come with a built-in engine that you can’t change.

There are many types of database storage engines. but, only two of them are popular enough in modern applications. They are

• B-tree-based (Balance Tree Based)

• LSM tree-based (Log Structured Merge)

Many databases use different storage engines. Some of the popular databases are

Popular Storage engines

There are many storage engines & these are the popular storage engines. let us see the specifications of each database engine by following.

• MyISAM

• InnoDB

• LevelDB

• SQLite

MyISAM

MyISAM Stands for Indexed sequential access method. It uses B-tree (Balanced tree) indexes to point to the rows directly.MyISAM engine does not have Transaction support. It is Open Source & Owned by Oracle

Inserts are fast, and updates and deletes are problematic. If a database crashes corrupt tables have to be manually repaired. MySQL, MariaDB, and Percona support MyISAM & used to be the default engine till MySQL5.0.

InnoDB

InnoDB uses B+tree - with indexes pointing to the primary key and the PK points to the row .It replaces MyISAM for MySQL & MariaDB .It supports ACID & transactions. It us owned by Oracle.

LevelDB

LevelDB Written by Jeff and Sanjay from Google in 2011 . Log structured merge tree (LSM) which is great for high inserting operations.It does not transactions .its Inspired by Google BigTable.

SQLite

SQLite is designed by D. Richard Hipp in 2000 .Its very popular embedded database for local data storage . its B-Tree based database engine. Postgres-like syntax . It supports full ACID & concurrent read & write operations.It Included in many operating systems by default.

Conclsuion

Finally , Choosing the right database engine for a particular use case is essential to ensure optimal performance and scalability. Factors to consider when selecting a database engine include data structure, access patterns, data volume, and concurrency.

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