Preface

The Oracle Spatial User's Guide and Reference provides usage and reference information for indexing and storing spatial data and for developing spatial applications.

Spatial requires Oracle9i Enterprise Edition. Oracle9i and Oracle9i Enterprise Edition have the same basic features. However, several advanced features, such as extended data types, are available only with the Enterprise Edition, and some of these features are optional. For example, to use Oracle9i table partitioning, you must have the Enterprise Edition and the Partitioning Option.

For information about the differences between Oracle9i and Oracle9i Enterprise Edition and the features and options that are available to you, see Oracle9i Database New Features.

Note: This is the last release of Oracle Spatial that will support the relational geometry model; only the object-relational model will be supported in Oracle9i release 2. Information about the relational model has been removed from this guide and placed in a separate manual, Oracle Spatial Relational Model Guide and Reference, which is available on the Oracle Technology Network. If you have not already switched completely to the object-relational model, you should do so immediately.

Audience

This guide is intended for anyone who needs to store spatial data in an Oracle database.

Organization

This guide has two main parts (conceptual and usage information, and reference information) and several appendixes with supplementary information. The first part is organized for efficient learning about Oracle Spatial; it covers basic concepts and techniques first, and proceeds to more advanced material (such as coordinate systems, the linear referencing system, geocoding, and extending spatial indexing).

This guide has the following elements.

Part I	Conceptual and Usage Information
Chapter 1	Introduces spatial data concepts.
Chapter 2	Explains the object-relational schema.
Chapter 3	Explains how to load spatial data.
Chapter 4	Explains how to index and query spatial data.
Chapter 5	Provides detailed information about coordinate system (spatial reference system) support.
Chapter 6	Provides conceptual and usage information for using the Oracle Spatial linear referencing system (LRS).
Chapter 7	Describes the Spatial Generic Geocoding Interface.
Chapter 8	Explains how to extend the capabilities of Oracle Spatial indexing.
Part II	Reference Information
Chapter 9	Provides the syntax and semantics for SQL indexing statements.
Chapter 10	Provides the syntax and semantics for methods used with the spatial object data type.
Chapter 11	Provides the syntax and semantics for operators used with the spatial object data type.
Chapter 12	Provides the syntax and semantics for the geometric functions and procedures.
Chapter 13	Provides the syntax and semantics for the spatial aggregate functions.
Chapter 14	Provides the syntax and semantics for the coordinate system transformation functions.
Chapter 15	Provides the syntax and semantics for the linear referencing (LRS) functions.
Chapter 16	Provides the syntax and semantics for the migration functions.
Chapter 17	Provides the syntax and semantics for the tuning functions and procedures.
(Other)	Supplementary Information
Appendix A	Describes installation, compatibility, and migration issues.
Appendix B	Describes hybrid indexing.
Appendix C	Describes Oracle9i Locator.
Glossary
Index

Changes for Release 9.0.1

The following are the main changes to this guide for this release:

• With Oracle9i, Spatial provides a rational and complete treatment of geodetic (longitude/latitude) coordinates. For more information about geodetic data support, see Section 5.2.

• Tolerance has a different meaning for geodetic data than for non-geodetic data. See Section 1.5.5.

• The SDO_GTYPE element of the SDO_GEOMETRY type has a new format that identifies the linear referencing dimension (if any). See Section 2.2.1.

• Methods are provided for the SDO_GEOMETRY type: GET_GTYPE, GET_DIMENSIONS, GET_LRS_DIMS. See Chapter 10.

• Spatial aggregate functions are provided: SDO_AGGR_MBR, SDO_AGGR_UNION, SDO_AGGR_BUFFER, SDO_AGGR_CONVEXHULL. See Chapter 13.

• The SDO_GEOMETRY type can be embedded in a user-defined data type. See Section 8.1.

• Partitioned indexes are supported. See Section 4.1.6, and the CREATE INDEX and ALTER INDEX descriptions in Chapter 9.

• Coordinate system support has been enhanced: storage and conversion of coordinates in any datum and projection; new SDO_CS.VIEWPORT_TRANSFORM function; local coordinate systems; and user-defined coordinate systems. See Chapter 5 for most of the information, and Chapter 14 for reference information about the SDO_CS.VIEWPORT_TRANSFORM function.

• Linear referencing support enhancements include support for additional kinds of geometric segments (multiple line strings and 2D polygons, in addition to line strings), _3D function formats, monotonically decreasing as well as increasing measure, several new functions, and aggregate concatenation. See Chapter 6.

• The new SDO_GEOM.SDO_ARC_DENSIFY function is provided to change arcs to straight lines to create a regular polygon for input to Spatial functions. See Chapter 16.

• The new SDO_MIGRATE.TO_CURRENT procedure is provided to migrate from previous Spatial releases to the current release. See Chapter 16.

• R-tree index administration functions are provided, to check the quality of the index and minimize query performance degradation. See Chapter 17.

• Columns have been added to the spatial index views (xxx_SDO_INDEX_METADATA). See Section 2.5.1.

• New views are provided for retrieving basic information about spatial indexes: xxx_SDO_INDEX_INFO views. See Section 2.5.1.1.

• Unit of measurement support (for example, MILE for distance units in miles) is provided for relevant Spatial functions and operators. See Section 2.6.

• A function to return the minimum bounding rectangle of a geometry is provided. See SDO_GEOM.SDO_MBR in Chapter 12.

• A commit interval can be specified when validating a layer. See the SDO_GEOM.VALIDATE_LAYER description in Chapter 12.

• The SDO_VERSION function returns the Spatial release (version) number. See Section 1.10.

• The 18-character limit for spatial index names is removed.

• Information about the relational model of Oracle Spatial has been removed, because this model is no longer supported. (Only the object-relational model is supported.) The removed material is in a document titled Oracle Spatial Relational Model Guide and Reference, which is available on the Oracle Technology Network.

• This guide has been reorganized into two main parts: Part I (Conceptual and Usage Information) and Part II (Reference Information).

• Error messages for coordinate systems and the linear referencing system have been moved to Oracle9i Database Error Messages.

Technologies Released Separately

Technologies of interest to spatial application developers, but not officially part of Oracle Spatial, are sometimes made available through the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). To access the OTN, go to

http://technet.oracle.com

Related Documents

For more information, see the following documents:

• Oracle9i Database New Features

• Oracle9i Database Administrator's Guide

• Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - Fundamentals

• Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - Workspace Manager

• Oracle9i Database Error Messages - Spatial messages are in the range of 13000 to 13499.

• Oracle9i Database Concepts

• Oracle9i Database Performance Guide and Reference

• Oracle9i Database Utilities

For additional information about Oracle Spatial, including white papers and other collateral, go to

http://www.oracle.com/

and search for Spatial.

Conventions

In examples, an implied carriage return occurs at the end of each line, unless otherwise noted. You must press the Return key at the end of a line of input.

The following conventions are used in this guide:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points in an example mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in statements or commands mean that parts of the statement or command not directly related to the example have been omitted
boldface text	Boldface text indicates a term defined in the text, the glossary, or in both locations.
< >	Angle brackets enclose user-supplied names.
[ ]	Brackets enclose optional clauses from which you can choose one or none.
%	The percent sign represents the system prompt on a UNIX system.

Documentation Accessibility

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Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

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