MySQL: Will a column-oriented engine be available in MySQL 5.5?

Question

Will a column-oriented storage engine (e.g. InfiniDB) be available in the core release of MySQL 5.5?

Meaning, not as a plugin but available with the core MySQL 5.5 bundle.

Answer 1

You can't just plug a column-based engine into MySQL. The reason for this is that its optimiser only understands row-based engines which support conventional indexes.

So the column-based engines (Infobright, infinidb and Kickfire) all use their own modification to the mysql core which makes it use their optimiser instead of the standard one (in some cases for some queries only).

Whereas other row-based engines (Tokutek, PBXT etc) can simply operate as plugins.

The storage engine API does not really work properly (efficiently, at least) for column-engines.

Column-engines don't support conventional indexes, which means the optimiser cannot know how to optimise for them.

So ummm, no.