An 

Introduction to Spatial 
Databases
 Definition

•A spatial database is a database that is optimized to 
store and query data related to objects in space, 
including points, lines and polygons. 
•While typical databases can understand various numeric 
and character types of data, additional functionality 
needs to be added for databases to process spatial data 
types
 Definition…

• Ralf Hartmut Güting defines Spatial DBMS:
– A spatial database system is a database system
– It offers spatial data types in its data model and 
query language
– It supports spatial data types in its 
implementation, providing at least spatial indexing 
and efficient algorithms for spatial join.
 Introduction
• Spatial DB contains objects “ in ” the space
• A spatial database system:
• Is a database system
– A DBMS with additional capabilities for handling spatial data
• Offers spatial data types (SDTs) in its data model and query 
language
– Structure in space: e.g., POINT, LINE, REGION
– Relationships among them: (l intersects r)
• Supports SDT in its implementation providing at least
– spatial indexing (retrieving objects in particular area without scanning 
the whole space)
– efficient algorithms for spatial joins (not simply filtering the cartesian 
product)
 Three meanings of the
acronym GIS
• Geographic Information Services.
– Web‐sites and service centers for casual users, e.g. 
travelers
– Example: Service (e.g. AAA, mapquest) for route planning
• Geographic Information Systems.
– Software for professional users, e.g. cartographers
– Example: ESRI Arc/View –Info –Editor software.
• Geographic Information Science.
– Concepts, frameworks, theories to formalize use and 
development of geographic information systems and services
– Example: design spatial data types and operations for 
querying
 Modeling

• Objects in space: cities, forests, or rivers 
– single objects
• Coverage/Field: say something about every 
point in space (e.g., partitions, thematic maps)

– spatially related collections of objects
 Modeling: spatial primitives for objects

• Point: object represented only by its location 
in space, e.g. center of a region
• Line (actually a curve or ployline): 
representation of moving through or 
connections in space, e.g. road, river
• Region: representation of an extent in 2d‐
space, e.g. lake, city
 Modeling: coverages
• Partition: set of region objects that are 
required to be disjoint (adjacency or region 
objects with common boundaries), e.g. 
thematic maps
• Networks: embedded graph in plane 
consisting of set of points (vertices) and lines 
(edges) objects, e.g. highways, power supply 
lines, rivers
 Modeling: a sample spatial type system (1)
EXT={lines, regions}, GEO={points, lines, regions}

 Spatial predicates for topological relationships:
 inside: geo x regions  bool
 intersect, meets: ext1 x ext2  bool 
 adjacent, encloses: regions x regions  bool
 Operations returning atomic spatial data types:
 intersection: lines x lines  points
 intersection: regions x regions  regions
 plus, minus: geo x geo  geo
 contour: regions  lines
 Modeling: a sample spatial type system (2)

• Spatial operators returning numbers
– dist: geo1 x geo2  real
– perimeter, area: regions  real
• Spatial operations on set of objects
– sum: set(obj) x (objgeo)  geo
– A spatial aggregate function, geometric union of all 
attribute values, e.g. union of set of provinces 
determine the area of the country
– closest: set(obj) x (objgeo1) x geo2  set(obj)
– Determines within a set of objects those whose 
spatial attribute value has minimal distance from 
geometric query object
– Other complex operations: overlay, buffering, …
 Modeling: Spatial Relationships

Most important operations of spatial algebras (predicates). 
E.g. find  all objects in a given relationship to a query 
object.
• topological relationship: inside, intersects, adjacent 
…(invariant under translation, rotation, scaling)
• Direction relationship: above, below, north_of, ...
• metric: distance < 100
Topological relationships studied in some depth. Any 
completeness criteria ?
Yes! Egenhofer 89 and subsequent work. Originally for simple 
regions only (no holes, connected) boundary
 Spatial Relations
 Topological Relations: containment, overlapping,

A B A B

 Metric Relations: distance between objects, etc.

1 Km
A B

 Direction Relations: north of, south of, etc.

B
 Topological Relations
 Topological relations are defined using point‐
set topology concepts, such as boundary and 
interior.
 Topological Relations (Cont.)
• For example: 
– the boundary of a region consists of a set 
of curves that separate the region from the 
rest of the coordinate space

– The interior of a region consists of all points 
in the region that are not on its boundary

• Given this, two regions are said to be 
adjacent if they share part of a boundary 
but do not share any points in their interior
 Modeling: SDBMS data model

• DBMS data model must be extended by SDTs 
at the level of atomic data types (such as 
integer, string), or better be open for user‐
defined types
 Querying
• Two main issues:
1. Connecting the operations of a spatial algebra 
(including predicates for spatial relationships) to 
the facilities of a DBMS query language. 
Fundamental spatial algebra operator are: 
– Spatial selection
– Spatial join
2. Providing graphical presentation of spatial data 
(i.e. results of queries), and graphical input of 
SDT values used in queries.
 Querying: spatial selection
• Spatial selection: returning those objects satisfying a 
spatial predicate with the query object
– “List All cities in Gojjam” 
– “List All big cities not more than 350 Kms from Addis 
Ababa”
 Spatial Joins

• In practice, spatial join operations are divided 
into a filter step and a refinement step to 
efficiently process complex spatial data types 
such as point collections in a row instance. In 
the filter step, the spatial objects are 
represented by simpler approximations such 
as their Minimum Bounding Rectangle or Box 
(MBR or MBB).
 Spatial Join
A spatial join associates two tables based on a
spatial relationship, rather than an the classic
non-spatial relational attribute. A spatial join
operation is used to combine two or more dataset
with respect to a spatial predicate or spatial
operation. Predicates can be a combination of
directional, distance, and topological spatial
relations (e.g. overlap, contains). In case of non-
spatial join, the joining attributes must of the
same type, but for spatial join they can be of
different types.
 Spatial Join Example1
Query: For all the rivers listed in the River table, find the counties
through which they pass.

SELECT r.name, c.name

FROM river AS r, country AS c
WHERE crosses(r.the_geom,c.the_geom);

The spatial predicate “Cross” is used to join River and Country tables
To view this we would add asbinary(R.the_geom,C.the_geom).
Note as we do not have a country table this will not work with our Irish data
set.
 Spatial Joins Example 2
• A spatial join associate two tables based on a 
spatial relationship, rather than an attribute 
relationship. For example the query:
Summarize the election results
by municipality.
• Could be answered using the following SQL:
SELECT
m.name,
sum(v.fiannfail) AS FF,
sum(v.gp) AS Green,
sum(v.finegael) AS FG,
sum(v.vtotal) AS total
FROM voting_areas v, municipality m,
WHERE
intersects(v.the_geom, m.the_geom)
GROUP BY m.name
ORDER BY m.name;

http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/publications/dublin2.pdf

http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=10838
 Dynamic and Static Data
• Static non‐spatial data is usually maintained in the 
table with the geometry (e.g. county name or unique 
identified). In some cases this data along with the 
geometry is considered immutable.
• Dynamic non‐spatial data is often maintained  in a 
separate table e.g. land ownership.
• There can be more than one dynamic table for a 
geometry table.
• Dynamic spatial can include moving objects or a 
changing world (temporality requires different 
treatment)
 Traditional Joins

• Pure data tables can be joined with the 
geometry tables for querying purposes
• A primary key is used to relate the 2 tables 
together
• A primary key is a unique identifier for each 
row in a table
Primary Key

ID rainfall 10/7/2003 temp Hi 10/7/2003 temp Lo 10/7/2003 ID the_geom

1 0.5 78 68 1 SRID=32140;POINT(968024.87474318 4198600.9516049)
2 0 80 65 2 SRID=32140;POINT(932279.183664999 4213955.37498466)
3 1.02 76 66 3 SRID=32140;POINT(952855.717021537 4223859.84524946)
4 0.23 81 68 4 SRID=32140;POINT(967568.655313907 4198112.19404211)
5 0.18 80 67 5 SRID=32140;POINT(961131.619598681 4220206.32109146)
 Spatial Join1

A typical example of spatial join is “Find all pair

of rivers and cities that intersect”. The result of
join between the set of rivers {R1, R2} and cities
{C1, C2, C3, C4, C5} is { (R1, C1), (R2, C5)}.
 Querying: spatial join

• Spatial join: A join which compares any two 
joined objects based on a predicate on their 
spatial attribute values.
– “For each river that pass through Gojam, find all 
cities within less than 50 Kms. from the rivers”

SELECT r.rname, c.cname, length(intersection(r.route, c.area))

FROM rivers r, cities c
WHERE r.route intersects Gojjam.area and dist(r.route,c.area) < 50
 Spatial Indexing
• To spped up spatial selection (as well as other 
operations such as spatial joins, …)
• It organizes space and the objects in it in some 
way so that only parts of the objects need to 
be considered to answer a query.
• Two main approaches:
1. Dedicated spatial data structures (e.g. R‐tree)
2. Spatial objects mapped to a 1‐D space to utilize 
standard indexing techniques (e.g. B‐tree)
 Spatial Indexing: Operations

• Spatial data structures either store points 
or rectangles (for line or region values)
• Operations on those structures: insert, 
delete, member
• Query types for points:
– Range query: all points within a query rectangle
– Nearest neighbor: point closest to a query point
– Distance scan: enumerate points in increasing distance 
from a query point.
• Query types for rectangles
– Intersection query
– Containment query
 Spatial Indexing: idea… approximate!
• A fundamental idea: use of approximations 
as keys
1) continuous (e.g. bounding box)
2) Grid (a geometric entity as a set of cells).
• Filter and refine strategy for query 
processing:
1. Filter: returns a set of candidate object which is 
a superset of the objects fulfilling a predicate
2.   Refine: for each candidate, the exact geometry is 
checked
 Spatial Indexing: memory organization
• A spatial index structure organizes points into buckets.
• Each bucket has an associated bucket region, a part of space 
containing all objects stored in that bucket.
• For point data structures, the regions are disjoint & partition 
space so that each point belongs into precisely one bucket.
• For rectangle data structures, bucket regions may overlap.
A kd‐tree partitioning of
2d‐space
where each bucket can
hold up to 3 points
 Spatial Indexing: 1‐D Grid approx. (1/2)

• One dimensional embedding: z‐order or bit‐
interleaving
– Find a linear order for the cells of the grid while 
maintaining “locality” (i.e., cells close to each other in space 
are also close to each other in the linear order)
– Define this order recursively for a grid that is 
obtained by hierarchical subdivision of space
1111

01 10

00 11 0000
 Spatial Join
• Traditional join methods such as hash join or 
sort/merge join are not applicable.
• Filtering cartesian product is expensive.
• Two general classes:
1. Grid approximation/bounding box
2. None/one/both operands are presented in a spatial index 
structure
• Grid approximations and overlap predicate:
– A parallel scan of two sets of z‐elements corresponding to 
two sets of spatial objects is performed
– Too fine a grid, too many z‐elements per object (inefficient)
– Too coarse a grid, too many “false hits” in a spatial join
 Spatial Join
• Bounding boxes: for two sets of rectangles R, S all 
pairs (r,s), r in R, s in S, such that r intersects s:
– No spatial index on R and S: bb_join which uses a 
computational geometry algorithm to detect rectangle 
intersection, similar to external merge sorting
– Spatial index on either R or S: index join scan the non‐
indexed operand and for each object, the bounding box of 
its SDT attribute is used as a search argument on the 
indexed operand (only efficient if non‐indexed operand is 
not too big or else bb‐join might be better)
– Both R and S are indexed: synchronized traversal of both 
structures so that pairs of cells of their respective 
partitions covering the same part of space are 
encountered together.
Geometry Hierarchy
 Geometry Hierarchy…
• Geometries can be broadly categorized into 
two groups, as follows.
– Single geometries contain one discrete geometric 
element. The most basic single geometry is a 
Point. There are also three types of curve 
(LineString, CircularString, and CompoundCurve) 
and two types of surface (Polygon and 
CurvePolygon).
– Geometry collections are compound elements, 
containing one or more of the individual 
geometries listed above.
 Geometry Hierarchy…
– homogeneous or heterogeneous, it contains 
serveral itmes of the same type of single geom
– A homogeneous geometry collection contains 
several items of the same type of single geometry 
only (e.g., a MultiPoint is a geometry collection 
containing only Points). 
– A heterogeneous geometry collection contains 
one or more of several different sorts of geometry, 
such as a collection containing a LineString and a 
Polygon
 Points
• A Point is the most fundamental type of 
geometry, and is used to represent a singular 
position in space.
• Defining Points
• Defining a Point
– A Point is defined by a pair of coordinate values, 
either an x‐coordinate value and a y‐coordinate 
value from a planar coordinate system, or a 
latitude and longitude coordinate value from a 
geographic coordinate system.
Point(3,5)
 Characteristics of Points
• All Point geometries share the following 
characteristics.
– A Point is zero‐dimensional, which means that it 
has no length in any direction and there is no area 
contained within a Point.
– A Point has no boundary.
– The interior of a Point is the Point itself. Everything 
other than that Point is the exterior.
– Points are always classified as "simple" 
geometries.
 LineStrings
• Points and draw the path segments that directly 
connect each one to the next in the series. This path 
defines a LineString.
LINESTRING(2 3, 4 6, 6 6, 10 4)
 DECLARE @LineString geometry = 'LINESTRING(0 0, 8 6)';
DECLARE @CircularString1 geometry = 'CIRCULARSTRING(0 0, 4 3, 8 6)';
SELECT
@LineString.STEquals(@CircularString1), ‐‐ Returns 1 (true)
@LineString.STEquals(@CircularString2); ‐‐ Returns 1 (true)
 Polygons
• A Polygon is a type of surface; that is, a 
Polygon is a two‐dimensional geometry that 
contains an area of space. The outer extent of 
the area of space contained within a Polygon 
is defined by a closed LineString, called the 
exterior ring.
 Defining polygons
• The Well‐Known Text for a Polygon begins with the POLYGON 
keyword, followed by a set of round brackets.
POLYGON((1 1, 3 1, 3 7, 1 7, 1 1) )
• The following code listing demonstrates the WKT syntax for a 
triangular Polygon containing an interior ring.
POLYGON((10 1, 10 9, 4 9, 10 1), (9 4, 9 8, 6 8, 9 4))
Implementing spatial data in SQL
 Examples: world database

• Country( Name: varchar(35), Cont: 
varchar(30), Pop: integer, GDP: integer, 
Life‐exp; integer, shape: char(9))
• City(Name: varchar(30), Country: varchar(35), 
Pop: integer, capital: varchar(30), Shape: 
varchar(9))
• River(Name: varchar(35), Origin: varchar(35), 
Length: integer, Shape: char(13))
 Datatypes
• Some common SQL data types
 Spatial Data Entity Creation
• Form an entity to hold county names, states, populations, and 
geographies
CREATE TABLE County(
Name  varchar(30),
State  varchar(30),
Pop Integer,
Shape Polygon);
• Form an entity to hold river names, sources, lengths, and 
geographies
CREATE TABLE River(
Name  varchar(30),
Source varchar(30),
Distance Integer,
Shape LineString);
 Query
Find all the counties that border on Contra Costa county
SELECT C1.Name
FROM County C1, County C2
WHERE Touch(C1.Shape, C2.Shape) = 1 AND C2.Name = ‘Contra
Costa’;
Find all the counties through which the Merced river runs
SELECT C.Name, R.Name
FROM County C, River R
WHERE Intersect(C.Shape, R.Shape) = 1 AND R.Name = ‘Merced’;

CREATE TABLE County( CREATE TABLE River(

Name varchar(30), Name varchar(30),
State varchar(30), Source varchar(30),
Pop Integer, Distance Integer,
Shape Polygon); Shape LineString);
 3.4 Extending SQL for Spatial Data
• Motivation
– SQL has simple atomic data‐types, like integer, dates and 
string
– Not convenient for spatial data and queries
• Spatial data (e.g. polygons) is complex
• Spatial operation: topological, euclidean, directional, metric
• SQL 3 allows user defined data types and operations
– Spatial data types and operations can be added to SQL3
• OGC Standard 
– Half a dozen spatial data types
– Several spatial operations
– Supported by major vendors, e.g. ESRI, Intergraph, Oracle, 
IBM,...
 OGIS Spatial Data Model
• Consists of base‐class Geometry and four sub‐classes:
– Point, Curve, Surface and GeometryCollection
– Figure 2.2 (pp. 27) lists the spatial data types in OGIS
 OGIS Spatial Data Model
• Consists of base‐class Geometry and four sub‐classes:
– Point, Curve, Surface and GeometryCollection
– Figure 2.2 (pp. 27) lists the spatial data types in OGIS

• Operations fall into three categories:
– Apply to all geometry types
• SpatialReference, Envelope, Export,IsSimple, Boundary
– Predicates for Topological relationships
• Equal, Disjoint, Intersect, Touch, Cross, Within, Contains
– Spatial Data Analysis
• Distance,Buffer,Union, Intersection, ConvexHull, SymDiff
– Table 3.9 (pp. 66) details spatial operations
 Spatial Queries with SQL/OGIS
• SQL/OGIS - General Information
•Both standard are being adopted by many vendors
•The choice of spatial data types and operations is similar
•Syntax differs from vendor to vendor
• Readers may need to alter SQL/OGIS queries given in text to make
them run on specific commercial products
• Using OGIS with SQL
• Spatial data types can be used in DML to type columns
• Spatial operations can be used in DML
• Scope of discussion
• Illustrate use of spatial data types with SQL
• Via a set of examples
 Spatial Operations with SQL/OGIS

• Basic Functions
• SpatialReference(): Returns the underlying coordinate system.
• Envolope(): Returns the Minimum Bounding Rectangle (MBR). 
• Export(): Returns the geometry in a different representation
• IsEmpty(): Returns true if the geometry is the null set.
• IsSimple(): true if no self intersections
• Boundary(): returns the boundary of the geometry.
 Spatial Operations with SQL
• Topological and Set comparison Operations
• Equal: True if the interior and boundary of two geometries are equal.
• Disjoint: True if the boundaries and interiors do not intersect
• Intersection: true if geometries are not disjoint
• Touch: true if the boundaries of two surfaces intersect but their interiors 
do not
• Cross: true if the interior of a surface intersects with a curve.
• Within: returns true if the interior of a given geometry does not intersect 
with the exterior of another geometry
• Contains: tests whether the given geometry contains another given 
geometry.
• Overlap: returns true if the interiors of two geometries have non‐empty 
intersections.
 Spatial Operations with SQL/OGIS

• Spatial Analysis
• Distance: return the shortest distance between to geometries
• Buffer: returns zone around some geometries
• ConvexHull: returns the smallest convex geometric set enclosing a 
geometry.
• Intersection: Returns the intersection of two geometries
• Union: Returns the union of two geometries
• Difference: returns the portion of a geometry that does not intersect with 
another given geometry.
• SymmDif: returns the portions of two geometry that do not intersect with 
each other.
 List of Spatial Query Examples
• Simple SQL SELECT_FROM_WHERE examples
•Spatial analysis operations
•Unary operator: Area (Q5, pp.68)
•Binary operator: Distance (Q3)
•Boolean Topological spatial operations - WHERE clause
•Touch (Q1, pp. 67)
•Cross (Q2, pp. 68)
•Using spatial analysis and topological operations
•Buffer, overlap (Q4)
•Complex SQL examples
• Aggreagate SQL queries
• Nested queries
 Using spatial operation in SELECT clause

Query: List the name, population, and area of each country

listed in the Country table.

SELECT C.Name,C.Pop, Area(C.Shape)AS "Area"

FROM Country C

Note: This query uses spatial operation, Area().Note the use of

spatial operation in place of a column in SELECT clause.
 Using spatial operator Distance

Query: List the GDP and the distance of a country’s capital city to the
equator for all countries.

SELECT Co.GDP, Distance(Point(0,Ci.Shape.y),Ci.Shape)

AS "Dist-to-Eq"
FROM Country Co,City Ci
WHERE Co.Name = Ci.Country
AND Ci.Capital =‘Y ’
 Using spatial operator Distance

Query: List the GDP and the distance of a country’s capital city to the
equator for all countries.

SELECT Co.GDP, Distance(Point(0,Ci.Shape.y),Ci.Shape) AS

"Distance"
FROM Country Co,City Ci
WHERE Co.Name = Ci.Country
AND Ci.Capital =‘Y ’

Note:
Point(0,Ci.Shape.y)
means lat = 0,
long=C1.Shape.y
Using Spatial Operation in WHERE 
clause
Query: Find the names of all countries which are neighbors of the
United States (USA) in the Country table.

SELECT C1.Name AS "Neighbors of USA"

FROM Country C1,Country C2
WHERE Touch(C1.Shape,C2.Shape)=1
AND C2.Name =‘USA ’

Note: Spatial operator Touch() is used in WHERE clause to join Country

table with itself. This query is an example of spatial self join operation.
Spatial Query with multiple tables
Query: For all the rivers listed in the River table, find the countries
through which they pass.

SELECT R.Name, C.Name

FROM River R, Country C
WHERE Cross(R.Shape,C.Shape)=1

Note: Spatial operation “Cross” is used to join River and Country

tables. This query represents a spatial join operation.

Exercise: Modify above query to report length of river in each country.

Hint: Q6, pp. 69
 Example Spatial Query…Buffer and Overlap

Query: The St. Lawrence River can supply water to cities that
are within 300 km. List the cities that can use water from the
St. Lawrence.

SELECT Ci.Name
FROM City Ci, River R
WHERE Overlap(Ci.Shape, Buffer(R.Shape,300))=1
AND R.Name =‘St.Lawrence ’

Note: This query uses spatial operation of Buffer, which is

illustrated in Figure 3.2 (pp. 69).
 Recall List of Spatial Query 
Examples
• Simple SQL SELECT_FROM_WHERE examples
•Spatial analysis operations
•Unary operator: Area
•Binary operator: Distance
•Boolean Topological spatial operations - WHERE clause
•Touch
•Cross
•Using spatial analysis and topological operations
•Buffer, overlap
•Complex SQL examples
• Aggreagate SQL queries (Q9, pp. 70)
• Nested queries (Q3 pp. 68, Q10, pp. 70)
 Using spatial operation in an aggregate query

Query: List all countries, ordered by number of neighboring countries.

SELECT Co.Name, Count(Co1.Name)

FROM Country Co, Country Co1
WHERE Touch(Co.Shape,Co1.Shape)
GROUP BY Co.Name
ORDER BY Count(Co1.Name)

Notes: This query can be used to differentiate querying capabilities of

simple GIS software (e.g. Arc/View) and a spatial database. It is quite
tedious to carry out this query in GIS.

Earlier version of OGIS did not provide spatial aggregate operation to

support GIS operations like reclassify.
 Using Spatial Operation in Nested Queries

Query: For each river, identify the closest city.

SELECT C1.Name, R1.Name

FROM City C1, River R1
WHERE Distance (C1.Shape,R1.Shape) <= ALL ( SELECT
Distance(C2.Shape)
FROM City C2
WHERE C1.Name <> C2.Name
)

Note: Spatial operation Distance used in context of a nested query.

Exercise: It is interesting to note that SQL query expression to find smallest
distance from each river to nearest city is much simpler and does not require
nested query. Audience is encouraged to write a SQL expression for this query.
 Nested Spatial Query
Query: List the countries with only one neighboring country. A country is
a neighbor of another country if their land masses share a boundary.
According to this definition, island countries, like Iceland, have no
neighbors.
SELECT Co.Name
FROM Country Co
WHERE Co.Name IN (SELECT Co.Name
FROM Country Co,Country Co1
WHERE Touch(Co.Shape,Co1.Shape)
GROUP BY Co.Name
HAVING Count(*)=1)
Note: It shows a complex nested query with aggregate operations. Such queries can be
written into two expression, namely a view definition, and a query on the view. The inner
query becomes a view and outer query is run on the view. This is illustrated in the next
slide.
 Rewriting nested queries using 
Views
•Views are like tables
•Represent derived data or result of a query
•Can be used to simplify complex nested queries
•Example follows:
CREATE VIEW Neighbor AS
SELECT Co.Name, Count(Co1.Name)AS num neighbors
FROM Country Co,Country Co1
WHERE Touch(Co.Shape,Co1.Shape)
GROUP BY Co.Name

SELECT Co.Name,num neighbors

FROM Neighbor
WHERE num neighbor = ( SELECT Max(num neighbors)
FROM Neighbor )
 Learning Objectives

• Learning Objectives (LO)
– LO1: Understand concept of a query language
– LO2 : Learn to use standard query language (SQL)
– LO3: Learn to use spatial ADTs with SQL
– LO4: Learn about the trends in query languages
• Facilities for user defined data types in SQL3

• Mapping Sections to learning objectives
– LO2 ‐ 3.2, 3.3
– LO3 ‐ 3.4, 3.5
– LO4 ‐ 3.6
Defining Spatial Data Types in SQL3
• SQL3 User defined data type - Overview
• CREATE TYPE statements
• Defines a new data types
• Attributes and methods are defined
• Separate statements for interface and implementation
•Examples of interface in Table 3.12 (pp. 74)

• Additional effort is needed at physical data model level

Defining Spatial Data Types in SQL3

• Libraries, Data cartridge/blades

• Third party libraries implementing OGIS are available
• Almost all user use these libraries
• Few users need to define their own data types

• We will not discuss the detailed syntax of CREATE TYPE

•Interested readers are encouraged to look at section 3.6
 Summary
• Queries to databases are posed in high level declarative manner
• SQL is the “lingua‐franca” in the commercial database world
• Standard SQL operates on relatively simple data types
• SQL3/OGIS supports several spatial data types and operations
• Additional spatial data types and operations can be defined 

– CREATE TYPE statement