Oracle Spatial User's Guide and Reference
Release 8.1.7

Part Number A85337-01

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Glossary

area

An extent or region of dimensional space.

attribute

Descriptive information characterizing a geographical feature such as a point, line, or area.

attribute data

Nondimensional data that provides additional descriptive information about multidimensional data, for example a class or feature such as a bridge or a road.

batch geocoding

An operation that simultaneously geocodes many records from one table. See also geocoding.

boundary
  1. The lower or upper extent of the range of a dimension, expressed by a numeric value.

  2. The line representing the outline of a polygon.

Cartesian coordinate system

A coordinate system in which the location of a point in n-dimensional space is defined by distances from the point to the reference plane. Distances are measured parallel to the planes intersecting a given reference plane. See also coordinate system.

contain

To describe a geometric relationship where one object encompasses another and the inner object does not touch any boundaries of the outer. The outer object contains the inner object. See also inside.

convex hull

A simple convex polygon that completely encloses the associated geometry object.

coordinate

A set of values uniquely defining a point in an n-dimensional coordinate system.

coordinate system

A reference system for the unique definition for the location of a point in n-dimensional space. Also called a spatial reference system.

cover

To describe a geometric relationship in which one object encompasses another and the inner object touches the boundary of the outer object in one or more places.

data dictionary

A repository of information about data. A data dictionary stores relational information on all the objects in a database.

decompose

To separate or resolve into constituent parts or elements, or into simpler compounds.

dimensional data

Data that has one or more dimensional components and is described by multiple values.

direction

The direction of an LRS geometric segment is indicated from the start point of the geometric segment to the end point. Measures of points on a geometric segment always increase along the direction of the geometric segment.

disjoint

A geometric relationship where two objects do not interact in any way. Two disjoint objects do not share any element or piece of their geometry.

equal

A geometric relationship in which two objects are considered to represent the same geometric figure. The two objects must be composed of the same number of points, however, the ordering of the points defining the two objects' geometries may differ (clockwise or counterclockwise).

extent

A rectangle bounding a map, the size of which is determined by the minimum and maximum map coordinates.

feature

An object with a distinct set of characteristics in a spatial database.

geocoding

The process of converting tables of address data into standardized address, location, and possibly other data.

geographical information system (GIS)

A computerized database management system used for the capture, conversion, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display of spatial data.

geographically referenced data

See spatiotemporal data.

geometry

The geometric representation of the shape of a spatial feature in some coordinate space.

georeferenced data

See spatiotemporal data.

GIS

See geographical information system (GIS).

grid

A data structure composed of points located at the nodes of an imaginary grid. The spacing of the nodes is constant in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

HHCODE

A data type representing the intersection point of multiple dimensions. It encodes these multiple dimensions into a unique, linear value. The HHCODE data types were used for both spatial indexing and partitioned point data in previous releases of Spatial.

high-water mark

Expressed in number of records and associated with the deprecated Spatial partitioned table structure, it defines the maximum number of records to store in a table before decomposing another level. The high-water mark determines the maximum size of a partition within the Spatial table. Partitioned tables were an alternative to spatial indexing.

hole

A polygon can include subelements that negate sections of its interior. For example, consider a polygon representing a map of buildable land with an inner polygon (a hole) representing where a lake is located.

homogeneous

Spatial data of one feature type such as points, lines, or regions.

hyperspatial data

In mathematics, any space having more than the three standard x, y, and z dimensions, also referred to as multidimensional data.

index

Identifier that is not part of a database and used to access stored information.

inside

To describe a geometric relationship where one object is surrounded by a larger object and the inner object does not touch the boundary of the outer. The smaller object is inside the larger. See also contain.

key

A field in a database used to obtain access to stored information.

keyword

Synonym for reserved word.

latitude

North/South position of a point on the Earth defined as the angle between the normal to the Earth's surface at that point and the plane of the equator.

line

A geometric object represented by a series of points, or inferred as existing between two coordinate points.

linear feature

Any spatial object that can be treated as a logical set of linear segments.

longitude

East/West position of a point on the Earth defined as the angle between the plane of a reference meridian and the plane of a meridian passing through an arbitrary point.

measure

The linear distance (in the LRS measure dimension) measured from the start point of the geometric segment.

measure range

The measure values at the start and end measures of a geometric segment.

multidimensional data

See hyperspatial data.

offset

The perpendicular distance between a point along a geometric segment and the geometric segment. Offsets are positive if points are on the left side along the segment direction and are negative if they are on the right side. Points are on a geometric segment if their offsets to the segment are zero.

partition
  1. The spatial table that contains data only for a unique bounded n-dimensional space.

  2. The process of grouping data into partitions that maintain the dimensional organization of the data.

partition key column

The primary HHCODE column that is used to dimensionally partition the data. One HHCODE data type column must be identified as the partition key for the table to be registered as partitionable in the Spatial data dictionary. There can be only one partition key per spatial table. Note that this is only used for the deprecated partitioned point data model, and not for spatially indexed data.

partitioned table

The spatial logical table structure that contains one or more partitions. Use partitioned tables only if you are dealing with a very large amount of legacy point data (over 50 gigabytes).

polygon

A class of spatial objects having a nonzero area and perimeter, and representing a closed boundary region of uniform characteristics.

primary filter

The operation that permits fast selection of candidate records to pass along to the secondary filter. The primary filter compares geometry approximations to reduce computation complexity and is considered a lower-cost filter. Because the primary filter compares geometric approximations, it returns a superset of the exact result set. See also secondary filter and two-tier query model.

projection

The point on the LRS geometric segment with the minimum distance to the specified point.

proximity

A measure of inter-object distance.

query

A set of conditions or questions that form the basis for the retrieval of information from a database.

query window

Area within which the retrieval of spatial information and related attributes is performed.

RDBMS

See Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).

recursion

A process, function, or routine that executes continuously until a specified condition is met.

region

An extent or area of multidimensional space.

Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)

A computer program designed to store and retrieve shared data. In a relational system, data is stored in tables consisting of one or more rows, each containing the same set of columns. Oracle8i is an object-relational database management system. Other types of database systems are called hierarchical or network database systems.

resolution

The number of subdivision levels of data.

scale
  1. The number of digits to the right of the decimal point in a number representing the level of resolution of an HHCODE instance.

  2. The ratio of the distance on a map, photograph, or image to the corresponding image on the ground, all expressed in the same units.

SD*Converter

A utility used with previous releases of Spatial Data Option to prepare data for loading into spatial tables. Loading is now accomplished through SQL*Loader.

secondary filter

The operation that applies exact computations to geometries that result from the primary filter. The secondary filter yields an accurate answer to a spatial query. The secondary filter operation is computationally expensive, but it is only applied to the primary filter results, not the entire data set. See also primary filter and two-tier query model.

shape points

Points that are specified when an LRS segment is constructed, and that are assigned measure information.

SLF

See Spatial Load Format (SLF).

sort

The operation of arranging a set of items according to a key that determines the sequence and precedence of items.

spatial

A generic term used to reference the mathematical concept of n-dimensional data.

spatial data

Data that is referenced by its location in n-dimensional space. The position of spatial data is described by multiple values. See also hyperspatial data.

spatial database

A database containing information indexed by location.

spatial data model

A model of how objects are located on a spatial context.

Spatial data dictionary

An extension of the Oracle8i data dictionary. It keeps track of the number of partitions created in a spatial table. The Spatial data dictionary is owned by user MDSYS. The data dictionary is used only by the deprecated partitioned point routines.

spatial data structures

A class of data structures designed to store spatial information and facilitate its manipulation.

spatial join

A query in which each of the geometries in one layer is compared with each of the geometries in the other layer. Comparable to a spatial cross product.

Spatial Load Format (SLF)

The format used to load data into spatial tables in a previous release of Spatial Data Option. Loading is now accomplished with the standard SQL*Loader.

spatial query

A query that includes criteria for which selected features must meet location conditions.

spatial reference system

See coordinate system.

spatiotemporal data

Data that contains time and/or location components as one of its dimensions, also referred to as geographically referenced data or georeferenced data.

SQL*Loader

A utility to load formatted data into spatial tables.

tessellation

The process of covering a geometry with rectangular tiles without gaps or overlaps.

tiling

See tessellation.

touch

A geometric relationship where two objects share a common point on their boundaries, but their interiors do not intersect.

two-tier query model

The query model used by Spatial to resolve spatial queries and spatial joins. Two distinct filtering operations (primary and secondary) are performed to resolve queries. The output of both operations yields the exact result set. See also primary filter and secondary filter.


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