Additional New Functionality

In this section, you'll see more highlights of new functionality that will be introduced in MySQL 4.1. This list is not the full list of changes; for that, you can read the actual changelog entries at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/en/News-4.1.x.html.

• Speed enhancements. As if MySQL weren't fast enough, the developers are always finding ways to make it even faster.

• Table creation using LIKE. You can use CREATE TABLE tablename LIKE othertablename to create a new table with the exact structure (but no data) as an existing table.

• Usability enhancements, primarily a help system within the MySQL command-line interface. Typing UCASE will provide help for the UCASE() MySQL function, for example.

• DATE/DATETIME usage will be changing slightly, in that you will no longer be able to enter data in the format of YYYYMMDD HHMMSS instead of YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS; all the separators must be used.

• TIMESTAMP will be returned as a string in the YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format, instead of in microseconds.

• Numerous date and time functions have been added, and existing ones enhanced. On the "Date and Time Functions" page of the MySQL manual (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Date_and_time_functions.html) these functions are noted as new for version 4.1.x.

• You will be able to specify a length for BLOB and TEXT fields, and by doing so, MySQL will autmatically change it to its appropriate type.

• Per-column comments can now be added, and SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM tablename will display these comments.

• Spatial extensions will be available to allow the generation, storage, and analysis of geographic features. You can read all about this topic at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/en/Spatial_extensions_in_MySQL.html.

With the exception of the date-related changes mentioned earlier, none of these listed enhancements to MySQL are incompatible with previous versions. In the changelog for minor and major releases, MySQL AB will always publish a warning statement, in bold lettering, to indicate when an incompatibility is caused by a new feature.