Spatial query
A spatial query is a special type of database query supported by geodatabases and spatial databases. The queries differ from non-spatial SQL queries in several important ways. Two of the most important are that they allow for the use of geometry data types such as points, lines and polygons and that these queries consider the spatial relationship between these geometries.
Types of queries
The function names for queries differ across geodatabases. The following list contains commonly used functions built into PostGIS, a free geodatabase which is a PostgreSQL extension (the term 'geometry' refers to a point, line, box or other two or three dimensional shape):
Function prototype: functionName (parameter(s)) : return type
- Distance(geometry, geometry) : number
- Equals(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Disjoint(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Intersects(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Touches(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Crosses(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Overlaps(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Contains(geometry, geometry) : boolean
- Length(geometry) : number
- Area(geometry) : number
- Centroid(geometry) : geometry
See also
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 20, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.