DISTANCE

Returns the distance (in kilometers) between two points. You specify the latitude and longitude of the starting point and the ending point. You can also specify the radius of curvature for greater accuracy when using an ellipsoidal model.

Behavior type

Syntax

DISTANCE ( lat0, lon0, lat1, lon1 [, radius-of-curvature ] )

Arguments

lat0

Starting point latitude.

lon0

Starting point longitude.

lat1

Ending point latitude

lon1

Ending point longitude.

radius-of-curvature

Radius of the earth's curvature at the midpoint between the starting and ending points. This argument allows for greater accuracy when using an ellipsoidal earth model. If you omit this argument, DISTANCE uses the WGS-84 average r1 radius, about 6371.009 km.

Examples

This example finds the distance in kilometers for 1 degree of longitude at latitude 45 degrees, assuming earth is spherical.

SELECT DISTANCE(45,0,45,1);
      DISTANCE
----------------------
 78.6262959272162
(1 row)