what are the main differences between all the mysql engines?

Question

I want to make a summary of the main differences between all the Mysql engines and of course the most populars also.

And what criteria should I use to determine which engine to use?

Answer 1

They are very well described here:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/storage-engines.html

Use InnoDB, if you're in doubt. It is general-purpose and performs well.

Answer 2

As Lars D says, This is very well described here:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/storage-engines.html

This data is from link given above which may help you a bit...

*************************** 1. row ***************************
 Engine: MyISAM
Support: DEFAULT
Comment: Default engine as of MySQL 3.23 with great performance
*************************** 2. row ***************************
 Engine: MEMORY
Support: YES
Comment: Hash based, stored in memory, useful for temporary tables
*************************** 3. row ***************************
 Engine: HEAP
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for MEMORY
*************************** 4. row ***************************
 Engine: MERGE
Support: YES
Comment: Collection of identical MyISAM tables
*************************** 5. row ***************************
 Engine: MRG_MYISAM
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for MERGE
*************************** 6. row ***************************
 Engine: ISAM
Support: NO
Comment: Obsolete storage engine, now replaced by MyISAM
*************************** 7. row ***************************
 Engine: MRG_ISAM
Support: NO
Comment: Obsolete storage engine, now replaced by MERGE
*************************** 8. row ***************************
 Engine: InnoDB
Support: YES
Comment: Supports transactions, row-level locking, and foreign keys
*************************** 9. row ***************************
 Engine: INNOBASE
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for INNODB
*************************** 10. row ***************************
 Engine: BDB
Support: YES
Comment: Supports transactions and page-level locking
*************************** 11. row ***************************
 Engine: BERKELEYDB
Support: YES
Comment: Alias for BDB
*************************** 12. row ***************************
 Engine: NDBCLUSTER
Support: NO
Comment: Clustered, fault-tolerant, memory-based tables
*************************** 13. row ***************************
 Engine: NDB
Support: NO
Comment: Alias for NDBCLUSTER
*************************** 14. row ***************************
 Engine: EXAMPLE
Support: NO
Comment: Example storage engine
*************************** 15. row ***************************
 Engine: ARCHIVE
Support: YES
Comment: Archive storage engine
*************************** 16. row ***************************
 Engine: CSV
Support: NO
Comment: CSV storage engine
*************************** 17. row ***************************
 Engine: FEDERATED
Support: YES
Comment: Federated MySQL storage engine
*************************** 18. row ***************************
 Engine: BLACKHOLE
Support: YES
Comment: /dev/null storage engine (anything you write to it disappears)