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302 lines
13 KiB
XML
302 lines
13 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<chapter>
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<title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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<qandaset>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>What kind of geometric objects can I store?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>You can store point, line, polygon, multipoint, multiline,
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multipolygon, and geometrycollections. These are specified in the Open
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GIS Well Known Text Format (with XYZ,XYM,XYZM extensions). There are two data types currently supported.
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The standard OGC geometry data type which uses a planar coordinate system for measurement and the
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geography data type which uses a geodetic coordinate system. Only WGS 84 long lat (SRID:4326) is supported
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by the geography data type.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>I'm all confused. Which data store should I use geometry or geography?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Short Answer: geography is a new data type that supports long range distances measurements. If
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you use geography -- you don't need to learn much about planar coordinate systems. Geography is generally best
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if all you care about is measuring distances and lengths and you have data from all over the world.
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Geometry datatype is an older data type that has many functions supporting it and enjoys great support from third party tools.
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Its best if you are pretty comfortable with spatial reference systems or you are dealing with localized data
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where all your data fits in a single <link linkend="spatial_ref_sys">spatial reference system (SRID)</link>, or you need to do a lot of spatial processing.
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Refer to <xref linkend="PostGIS_TypeFunctionMatrix" /> to see what is currently supported and what is not.
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</para>
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<para>
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Long Answer: Refer to our more lengthy discussion in the <xref linkend="PostGIS_GeographyVSGeometry" /> and <link linkend="PostGIS_TypeFunctionMatrix">function type matrix</link>.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>I have more intense questions about geography, such as how big of a geographic region can I stuff in a geography column and
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still get reasonable answers. Are there limitations such as poles, everything in the field must fit in a hemisphere (like SQL Server 2008 has), speed etc?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Your questions are too deep and complex to be adequately answered in this section. Please refer to our
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<xref linkend="PostGIS_Geography_AdvancedFAQ" /> .</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>How do I insert a GIS object into the database?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>First, you need to create a table with a column of type
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"geometry" or "geography" to hold your GIS data.
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Storing geography type data is a little different than storing geometry. Refer
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to <xref linkend="Geography_Basics" /> for details on storing geography. </para>
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<para>
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For geometry: Connect to your database with
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<filename>psql</filename> and try the following SQL:</para>
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<programlisting>CREATE TABLE gtest ( ID int4, NAME varchar(20) );
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SELECT AddGeometryColumn('', 'gtest','geom',-1,'LINESTRING',2);</programlisting>
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<para>If the geometry column addition fails, you probably have not
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loaded the PostGIS functions and objects into this database. See the
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<xref linkend="PGInstall" />.</para>
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<para>Then, you can insert a geometry into the table using a SQL
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insert statement. The GIS object itself is formatted using the OpenGIS
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Consortium "well-known text" format:</para>
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<programlisting>INSERT INTO gtest (ID, NAME, GEOM)
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VALUES (
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1,
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'First Geometry',
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ST_GeomFromText('LINESTRING(2 3,4 5,6 5,7 8)', -1)
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);</programlisting>
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<para>For more information about other GIS objects, see the <link
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linkend="RefObject">object reference</link>.</para>
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<para>To view your GIS data in the table:</para>
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<programlisting>SELECT id, name, ST_AsText(geom) AS geom FROM gtest;</programlisting>
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<para>The return value should look something like this:</para>
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<programlisting> id | name | geom
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----+----------------+-----------------------------
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1 | First Geometry | LINESTRING(2 3,4 5,6 5,7 8)
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(1 row)</programlisting>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>How do I construct a spatial query?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>The same way you construct any other database query, as an SQL
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combination of return values, functions, and boolean tests.</para>
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<para>For spatial queries, there are two issues that are important to
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keep in mind while constructing your query: is there a spatial index
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you can make use of; and, are you doing expensive calculations on a
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large number of geometries.</para>
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<para>In general, you will want to use the "intersects operator"
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(&&) which tests whether the bounding boxes of features
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intersect. The reason the && operator is useful is because if
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a spatial index is available to speed up the test, the &&
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operator will make use of this. This can make queries much much
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faster.</para>
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<para>You will also make use of spatial functions, such as Distance(),
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ST_Intersects(), ST_Contains() and ST_Within(), among others, to
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narrow down the results of your search. Most spatial queries include
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both an indexed test and a spatial function test. The index test
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serves to limit the number of return tuples to only tuples that
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<emphasis>might</emphasis> meet the condition of interest. The spatial
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functions are then use to test the condition exactly.</para>
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<programlisting>SELECT id, the_geom
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FROM thetable
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WHERE
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ST_Contains(the_geom,'POLYGON((0 0, 0 10, 10 10, 10 0, 0 0))');</programlisting>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>How do I speed up spatial queries on large tables?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Fast queries on large tables is the <emphasis>raison
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d'etre</emphasis> of spatial databases (along with transaction
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support) so having a good index is important.</para>
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<para>To build a spatial index on a table with a
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<varname>geometry</varname> column, use the "CREATE INDEX" function as
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follows:</para>
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<programlisting>CREATE INDEX [indexname] ON [tablename] USING GIST ( [geometrycolumn] );</programlisting>
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<para>The "USING GIST" option tells the server to use a GiST
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(Generalized Search Tree) index.</para>
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<note>
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<para>GiST indexes are assumed to be lossy. Lossy indexes uses a
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proxy object (in the spatial case, a bounding box) for building the
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index.</para>
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</note>
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<para>You should also ensure that the PostgreSQL query planner has
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enough information about your index to make rational decisions about
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when to use it. To do this, you have to "gather statistics" on your
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geometry tables.</para>
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<para>For PostgreSQL 8.0.x and greater, just run the <command>VACUUM
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ANALYZE</command> command.</para>
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<para>For PostgreSQL 7.4.x and below, run the <command>SELECT
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UPDATE_GEOMETRY_STATS()</command> command.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>Why aren't PostgreSQL R-Tree indexes supported?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Early versions of PostGIS used the PostgreSQL R-Tree indexes.
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However, PostgreSQL R-Trees have been completely discarded since
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version 0.6, and spatial indexing is provided with an R-Tree-over-GiST
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scheme.</para>
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<para>Our tests have shown search speed for native R-Tree and GiST to
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be comparable. Native PostgreSQL R-Trees have two limitations which
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make them undesirable for use with GIS features (note that these
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limitations are due to the current PostgreSQL native R-Tree
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implementation, not the R-Tree concept in general):</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>R-Tree indexes in PostgreSQL cannot handle features which
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are larger than 8K in size. GiST indexes can, using the "lossy"
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trick of substituting the bounding box for the feature
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itself.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>R-Tree indexes in PostgreSQL are not "null safe", so
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building an index on a geometry column which contains null
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geometries will fail.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>Why should I use the <varname>AddGeometryColumn()</varname>
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function and all the other OpenGIS stuff?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>If you do not want to use the OpenGIS support functions, you do
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not have to. Simply create tables as in older versions, defining your
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geometry columns in the CREATE statement. All your geometries will
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have SRIDs of -1, and the OpenGIS meta-data tables will
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<emphasis>not</emphasis> be filled in properly. However, this will
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cause most applications based on PostGIS to fail, and it is generally
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suggested that you do use <varname>AddGeometryColumn()</varname> to
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create geometry tables.</para>
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<para>MapServer is one application which makes use of the
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<varname>geometry_columns</varname> meta-data. Specifically, MapServer
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can use the SRID of the geometry column to do on-the-fly reprojection
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of features into the correct map projection.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>What is the best way to find all objects within a radius of
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another object?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>To use the database most efficiently, it is best to do radius
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queries which combine the radius test with a bounding box test: the
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bounding box test uses the spatial index, giving fast access to a
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subset of data which the radius test is then applied to.</para>
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<para>The <varname>ST_DWithin(geometry, geometry, distance)</varname>
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function is a handy way of performing an indexed distance search. It
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works by creating a search rectangle large enough to enclose the
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distance radius, then performing an exact distance search on the
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indexed subset of results.</para>
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<para>For example, to find all objects with 100 meters of POINT(1000
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1000) the following query would work well:</para>
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<programlisting>SELECT * FROM geotable
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WHERE ST_DWithin(geocolumn, 'POINT(1000 1000)', 100.0);</programlisting>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>How do I perform a coordinate reprojection as part of a
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query?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>To perform a reprojection, both the source and destination
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coordinate systems must be defined in the SPATIAL_REF_SYS table, and
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the geometries being reprojected must already have an SRID set on
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them. Once that is done, a reprojection is as simple as referring to
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the desired destination SRID. The below projects a geometry to NAD 83 long lat.
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The below will only work if the srid of the_geom is not -1 (not undefined spatial ref)</para>
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<programlisting>SELECT ST_Transform(the_geom,4269) FROM geotable;</programlisting>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>I did an ST_AsEWKT and ST_AsText on my rather large geometry and it returned blank field. What gives?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>You are probably using PgAdmin or some other tool that doesn't output large text. If your geometry is big
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enough, it will appear blank in these tools. Use PSQL if you really need to see it or output it in WKT.</para>
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<programlisting>
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--To check number of geometries are really blank
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SELECT count(gid) FROM geotable WHERE the_geom IS NULL;</programlisting>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question>
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<para>When I do an ST_Intersects, it says my two geometries don't intersect when I KNOW THEY DO. What gives?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>This generally happens in two common cases. Your geometry is invalid -- check <xref linkend="ST_IsValid" />
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or you are assuming they intersect because ST_AsText truncates the numbers and you have lots of decimals after
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it is not showing you.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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</qandaset>
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</chapter> |