Retrieving spatial data from a table as well-known text (WKT)

GEOMETRY and GEOGRAPHY data is stored in Vertica tables as LONG VARBINARY, which isn't human readable. You can use ST_AsText to return the spatial data as Well-Known Text (WKT).

To return spatial data as WKT:

=> SELECT id, ST_AsText(geom) AS WKT FROM spatial_data;
 id |               WKT
----+----------------------------------
  1 | POINT (2 3)
  2 | LINESTRING (-1 2, 1 5)
  3 | POLYGON ((-1 2, 0 3, 1 2, -1 2))
(3 rows)