GEOGRAPHY type

Applies to: Databricks Runtime 17.1 and above

Represents a geographic object (point, linestring, polygon, etc.) whose coordinate reference system is geographic and is described by the SRID value of the GEOGRAPHY type. The underlying space in which the geographic object lives is a periodic space with the first axis representing longitudes in degrees and the second axis representing latitudes in degrees. The coordinates are expected to be in the [-180, 180] for longitudes and in the [-90, 90] range for latitudes.

Syntax

GEOGRAPHY ( { srid | ANY } )

Limits

A column of type GEOGRAPHY(ANY) can hold geographies whose SRID values can be different per row. A column of type GEOGRAPHY(ANY) cannot be persisted.

The only SRID value allowed for the GEOGRAPHY type is 4326. The user will get a ST_INVALID_SRID_VALUE error if they try to define a GEOGRAPHY column with an SRID value other than 4326.

Literals

For details about how to create a GEOGRAPHY value, see:

• st_geogfromgeojson function
• st_geogfromtext function
• st_geogfromwkb function
• st_geogfromwkt function
• to_geography function
• try_to_geography function

Notes

• To convert a GEOGRAPHY value to one of the geospatial standard or widely used formats you can use:
  • st_asbinary function to export a GEOGRAPHY in WKB format.
  • st_asewkt function to export a GEOGRAPHY in Extended WKT (EWKT) format.
  • st_asgeojson function to export a GEOGRAPHY in GeoJSON format.
  • st_astext function to export a GEOGRAPHY in WKT format.

Examples

> SELECT hex(st_asbinary(st_geogfromtext('POINT(1 2)'));
  0101000000000000000000f03f0000000000000040

> SELECT st_asewkt(st_geogfromwkb(X'0101000000000000000000f03f0000000000000040');
  SRID=4326;POINT(1 2)

> SELECT st_asgeojson(st_geogfromtext('POINT(1 2)');
  {"type":"Point","coordinates":[[1,2]]}

> SELECT st_astext(st_geogfromgeojson('{"type":"Point","coordinates":[[1,2]]}');
  POINT(1 2)

> SELECT st_astext(to_geography('{"type":"Point","coordinates":[[1,2]]}');
  POINT(1 2)

> SELECT try_to_geography('not a geography value');
  NULL

Related

• st_asbinary function
• st_asgeojson function
• st_asewkt function
• st_astext function
• st_geogfromgeojson function
• st_geogfromtext function
• st_geogfromwkb function
• to_geography function
• try_to_geography function