Skip to content
Apache Sedona 1.9.0 is out now, featuring Spark 4.1 support, proj4sedona CRS transformation, Bing Tile functions, and more!

Geography Functions

The Geography type in Sedona represents spatial objects on a spherical (geodesic) model of the Earth. Unlike the planar Geometry type, distance, area, and other measurements performed on Geography objects account for the curvature of the Earth and return results in real-world units (e.g., meters).

SedonaFlink exposes geography constructors, measurement and output functions, and spatial predicates. Constructors build Geography values and convert between Geometry and Geography; the functions and predicates operate on Geography columns directly. These functions share the same names as their Geometry counterparts — SedonaFlink resolves the geography variant from the column type.

Geography Constructors

These functions create geography objects from various formats, or convert between geometry and geography.

Function Return type Description Since
ST_GeogCollFromText Geography Constructs a GeometryCollection geography from the WKT with the given SRID. If SRID is not provided then it defaults to 0. It returns null if the WKT is not a GEOMETRYCOLLECTION. v1.9.1
ST_GeogFromEWKB Geography Construct a Geography from EWKB Binary. This function is an alias of ST_GeogFromWKB. v1.9.1
ST_GeogFromEWKT Geography Construct a Geography from OGC Extended WKT. v1.9.1
ST_GeogFromGeoHash Geography Create Geography from geohash string and optional precision. v1.9.1
ST_GeogFromText Geography Construct a Geography from WKT. If SRID is not set, it defaults to 0 (unknown). Alias of ST_GeogFromWKT. v1.9.1
ST_GeogFromWKB Geography Construct a Geography from WKB Binary. v1.9.1
ST_GeogFromWKT Geography Construct a Geography from WKT. If SRID is not set, it defaults to 0 (unknown). v1.9.1
ST_GeogToGeometry Geometry Construct a planar Geometry from a Geography. v1.9.1
ST_GeomToGeography Geography Construct a Geography from a planar Geometry. v1.9.1

Geography Functions

These functions measure or format geography objects. Measurements are computed on a spherical model of the Earth (radius R = 6 371 008 m, the mean Earth radius), not the WGS84 ellipsoid — areas in square meters and lengths/distances in meters. (ST_Buffer is the exception: it is computed on the WGS84 spheroid.)

Function Return type Description Since
ST_Area Double Return the geodesic area of a geography in square meters. v1.9.1
ST_AsEWKT String Return the EWKT representation of a geography, including its SRID. v1.9.1
ST_AsText String Return the WKT representation of a geography. v1.9.1
ST_Buffer Geography Return the geodesic buffer of a geography (distance in meters). v1.9.1
ST_Centroid Geography Return the centroid of a geography as a Geography point. v1.9.1
ST_Distance Double Return the minimum geodesic distance between two geographies in meters. v1.9.1
ST_Envelope Geography Return the bounding box of a geography. Supports antimeridian splitting. v1.9.1
ST_GeometryType String Return the type of a geography as a string. v1.9.1
ST_Length Double Return the spherical length of a geography in meters. v1.9.1
ST_NPoints Integer Return the number of points (vertices) in a geography. v1.9.1
ST_NumGeometries Integer Return the number of sub-geometries in a geography. v1.9.1

Geography Predicates

These functions test spatial relationships between two geographies on the sphere.

Function Return type Description Since
ST_Contains Boolean Test whether geography A fully contains geography B. v1.9.1
ST_DWithin Boolean Test whether two geographies are within a given geodesic distance (in meters) of each other. v1.9.1
ST_Equals Boolean Test whether two geographies are spatially equal. v1.9.1
ST_Intersects Boolean Test whether two geographies intersect. v1.9.1
ST_Within Boolean Test whether geography A is fully within geography B. v1.9.1