SpatialDB Advisor: toGeography and toGeography Conversion Functions for SQL Server 2008 Spatial

toGeography and toGeography Conversion Functions for SQL Server 2008 Spatial

· Sep 28, 04:13 pm by Simon Greener

I have been doing some SQL Server 2008 programming lately and have come across the fact that TSQL does not allowing a programmer to create overloaded functions.

This is an issue, when programming SQL Server 2008 Spatial, because of use of its implementation of two different data types for geodetic and projected data: geography and geometry.

Thus, if I want to create a function like “DumpPoints”: I have to implement it twice (as is done with the CLR functions in SQL Spatial Tools ) eg:

Create Function DumpPointsGeom( @p_geom geometry ) 
etc

Create Function DumpPointsGeog( @p_geom geography ) 
etc

Or I can implement it once – DumpPoints( @p_geom geometry) – and call it using the following conversion functions.

USE [GISDB]  -- Change this to your database
GO

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

Create Function [dbo].[toGeography](@p_geom geometry,
                                    @p_srid Int = null)
 Returns geography
As
Begin
  Return geography::STGeomFromText(@p_geom.AsTextZM(),
         case when @p_srid is null 
              then @p_geom.STSrid
              else @p_srid
          end );
End
GO

Create Function [dbo].[toGeometry](@p_geog geography,
                                   @p_srid Int = null)
 Returns geometry
As
Begin
  Return geometry::STGeomFromText(@p_geog.AsTextZM(),
         case when @p_srid is null 
              then @p_geog.STSrid
              else @p_srid
          end );
End
GO

Testing its we get:

-- Test
-- 
SELECT dbo.ToGeography(
           dbo.ToGeometry(
               geography::STGeomFromText('LINESTRING(147.234 -43.2345, 148.234 -43.2345)',4326),
               0),
           4326).STAsText() 
       as geog;