MySQL Reference Manual :: D.1 Changes in release 5.0.x (Development)

Basic support for read-only server side cursors.

Basic support for (updatable) views. See, for example, Section 21.2, “CREATE VIEW Syntax”.

Basic support for stored procedures (SQL:2003 style). See Chapter 19, Stored Procedures and Functions.

Initial support for rudimentary triggers.

Added SELECT INTO list_of_vars, which can be of mixed (that is, global and local) types. See Section 19.2.9.3, “SELECT ... INTO Statement”.

Removed the update log. It is fully replaced by the binary log. If the MySQL server is started with --log-update, it is translated to --log-bin (or ignored if the server is explicitly started with --log-bin), and a warning message is written to the error log. Setting SQL_LOG_UPDATE silently sets SQL_LOG_BIN instead (or do nothing if the server is explicitly started with --log-bin).

Support for the ISAM storage engine has been removed. If you have ISAM tables, you should convert them before upgrading. See Section 2.10.1, “Upgrading from Version 4.1 to 5.0”.

Support for RAID options in MyISAM tables has been removed. If you have tables that use these options, you should convert them before upgrading. See Section 2.10.1, “Upgrading from Version 4.1 to 5.0”.

User variable names are now case insensitive: If you do SET @a=10; then SELECT @A; now returns 10. Case sensitivity of a variable's value depends on the collation of the value.

Strict mode, which in essence means that you get an error instead of a warning when inserting an incorrect value into a column. See Section 5.3.2, “The Server SQL Mode”.

VARCHAR and VARBINARY columns remember end space. A VARCHAR() or VARBINARY column can contain up to 65,535 characters or bytes, respectively.

MEMORY (HEAP) tables can have VARCHAR() columns.

When using a constant string or a function that generate a string result in CREATE ... SELECT, MySQL creates the result field based on the max_length of the string/expression: