When should you choose to use InnoDB in MySQL?

Question

I am rather confused by the hurt-mongering here.

I know how to do them, see below, but no idea why? What are they for?

create table orders (         


        

Answer 1

In general for me the most important point is that InnoDB offers per row locking, while MyISAM does look per table. On big tables with a lot of writes this might make a big performance issue.

On the otherhand MyISAM table have a easier file structure, copying and repairing table on file level is way easier.