Spatial Data Types

Vertica supports two spatial data types. These data types store two- and three-dimensional spatial objects in a table column:

  • GEOMETRY: Spatial object with coordinates expressed as (x,y) pairs, defined in the Cartesian plane. All calculations use Cartesian coordinates.

  • GEOGRAPHY: Spatial object defined as on the surface of a perfect sphere, or a spatial object in the WGS84 coordinate system. Coordinates are expressed in longitude/latitude angular values, measured in degrees. All calculations are in meters. For perfect sphere calculations, the sphere has a radius of 6371 kilometers, which approximates the shape of the earth.

Some spatial programs use an ellipsoid to model the earth, resulting in slightly different data.

The maximum size of a GEOMETRY or GEOGRAPHY data type is 10,000,000 bytes (10 MB). You cannot use either data type as a table's primary key.

Syntax

GEOMETRY [ (length) ]
GEOGRAPHY [ (length) ]

Parameters

length

The maximum amount of spatial data that a GEOMETRY or GEOGRAPHY column can store.

Maximum value: 10 MB

Default value: 1 MB