InnoDB Row Formats

The row format of a table determines how its rows are physically stored, which in turn can affect the performance of queries and DML operations. As more rows fit into a single disk page, queries and index lookups can work faster, less cache memory is required in the buffer pool, and less I/O is required to write out updated values.

The data in each table is divided into pages. The pages that make up each table are arranged in a tree data structure called a B-tree index. Table data and secondary indexes both use this type of structure. The B-tree index that represents an entire table is known as the clustered index, which is organized according to the primary key columns. The nodes of a clustered index data structure contain the values of all columns in the row. The nodes of a secondary index structure contain the values of index columns and primary key columns.

Variable-length columns are an exception to the rule that column values are stored in B-tree index nodes. Variable-length columns that are too long to fit on a B-tree page are stored on separately allocated disk pages called overflow pages. Such columns are referred to as off-page columns. The values of off-page columns are stored in singly-linked lists of overflow pages, with each such column having its own list of one or more overflow pages. Depending on column length, all or a prefix of variable-length column values are stored in the B-tree to avoid wasting storage and having to read a separate page.

The InnoDB storage engine supports four row formats: REDUNDANT, COMPACT, DYNAMIC, and COMPRESSED.