User's Guide and Reference

Geometries and associated spatial functions

This chapter discusses units of information, called geometries, that consist of coordinates and symbolize geographic features. The chapter also introduces spatial functions that take geometries as input and return results that help you to analyze geographic features and to move spatial data between geographic information systems. The topics covered are:

• The nature of geometries
• Geometries' properties; functions that return information related to these properties
• Instantiable geometries; functions that operate on them
• Functions that:
  • Show relationships and comparisons between geographic features
  • Generate geometries
  • Convert geometry values into importable and exportable formats