ST_Distance

Calculates the shortest distance between two spatial objects.

Calculates the shortest distance between two spatial objects. For GEOMETRY objects, the distance is measured in Cartesian coordinate units. For GEOGRAPHY objects, the distance is measured in meters.

Parameters g1 and g2 must be both GEOMETRY objects or both GEOGRAPHY objects.

Behavior type

Immutable

Syntax

ST_Distance( g1, g2
        [USING PARAMETERS spheroid={ true | false } ] )

Arguments

g1: Spatial object, type GEOMETRY or GEOGRAPHY
g2: Spatial object, type GEOMETRY or GEOGRAPHY

Parameters

spheroid = { true | false }

(Optional) BOOLEAN that specifies whether to use a perfect sphere or WGS84.

Default: False

Returns

FLOAT

Supported data types

Data Type	GEOMETRY	GEOGRAPHY (Perfect Sphere)	GEOGRAPHY (WGS84)
Point	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multipoint	Yes	Yes	Yes
Linestring	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multilinestring	Yes	Yes	Yes
Polygon	Yes	Yes	No
Multipolygon	Yes	Yes	No
GeometryCollection	Yes	No	No

Compatible GEOGRAPHY pairs:

Data Type	GEOGRAPHY (Perfect Sphere)	GEOGRAPHY (WGS84)
Point-Point	Yes	Yes
Linestring-Point	Yes	Yes
Multilinestring-Point	Yes	Yes
Polygon-Point	Yes	No
Multipoint-Point	Yes	Yes
Multipoint-Multilinestring	Yes	No
Multipolygon-Point	Yes	No

Recommendations

Vertica recommends pruning invalid data before using ST_Distance. Invalid geography values could return non-guaranteed results.

Examples

The following examples show how to use ST_Distance.

Distance between two polygons:

=> SELECT ST_Distance(ST_GeomFromText('POLYGON((-1 -1,2 2,0 1,-1 -1))'),
                      ST_GeomFromText('POLYGON((5 2,7 4,5 5,5 2))'));
 ST_Distance
-------------
           3
(1 row)

Distance between a point and a linestring in meters:

=> SELECT ST_Distance(ST_GeographyFromText('POINT(31.75 31.25)'),
    ST_GeographyFromText('LINESTRING(32 32,32 35,40.5 35,32 35,32 32)'));
   ST_Distance
------------------
 86690.3950562969
(1 row)