Server System Variables 4294967295 Maximum Value (32-bit platforms) If this value is greater than 1,  MyISAM  table indexes are created in parallel (each index in its own thread) during the  Repair by sorting  process. The default value is 1. Multithreaded repair is still  beta-quality  code. Note • myisam_sort_buffer_size How the server treats  NULL  values when collecting statistics about the distribution of index values for  MyISAM  tables. This variable has three possible values,  nulls_equal ,  nulls_unequal , and nulls_ignored . For  nulls_equal , all  NULL  index values are considered equal and form a single value group that has a size equal to the number of  NULL  values. For  nulls_unequal ,  NULL  values are The size of the buffer that is allocated when sorting  MyISAM  indexes during a  REPAIR TABLE  or when creating indexes with  CREATE INDEX  or  ALTER TABLE . Command-Line Format --myisam-sort-buffer-size=# System Variable myisam_sort_buffer_size Scope Global, Session Dynamic Yes SET_VAR  Hint Applies No Type Integer Default Value 8388608 Minimum Value 4096 Maximum Value (64-bit platforms) 18446744073709551615 Maximum Value (32-bit platforms) 4294967295 Command-Line Format --myisam-stats-method=name System Variable myisam_stats_method Scope Global, Session Dynamic Yes SET_VAR  Hint Applies No Type Enumeration Default Value nulls_unequal Valid Values nulls_equal nulls_unequal nulls_ignored 841 • myisam_stats_method