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Extracting geometry type string values from geometry/geography objects in SQL Server 2008 Spatial

· Sep 29, 10:56 am by Simon Greener

Ever needed to extract a textual description of all geometry types in a single geometry/geography in SQL Server 2008?

Recently I had cause to do so and created the following function that implements this need.

/*********************************************************************************
** @function    : Geometry_Type
** @precis      : Returns geometry type of passed in geometry as string.
** @description : Returns list of geometry types (from OGC STGeometryType function)
**                that describe the contents of the passed in geometry.
**                Any GeometryCollection is "exploded" to examine the geometry types
**                within it.
**                Geography objects can be processed by converting to geometry using
**                dbo.toGeometry() function.
** @example     : select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('POINT(0 1 2)',0));
** @param       : p_geom : the geometry object to be processed.
** @param_type  : p_geom : geometry
** @history     : Simon Greener, The Spatial DB Advisor, September 2009
** @copyright   : Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. 
**                (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/au/)
**/

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

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

Create function [dbo].[geometry_type]( @p_geom geometry )
  Returns varchar(MAX)
As
Begin
  Declare
    @v_geomn        Int,
    @v_geometryType varchar(100),
    @v_return       varchar(MAX);
  Begin
    If ( @p_geom is NULL ) 
      return NULL;

    SET @v_GeometryType = @p_geom.STGeometryType();

    IF ( @v_geometryType <> 'GeometryCollection' )
      SET @v_return = @v_GeometryType
    ELSE
    BEGIN
	  SET @v_geomn  = 1;
	  SET @v_return = 'GeometryCollection';
	  WHILE ( @v_geomn <= @p_geom.STNumGeometries() )
	  BEGIN
	    SET @v_GeometryType = @p_geom.STGeometryN(@v_geomn).STGeometryType();
	    IF ( CHARINDEX(':' + @v_GeometryType,==@==v_return) = 0 )
		  SET @v_return = @v_return + ':' + @v_GeometryType;
		SET @v_geomn = @v_geomn + 1;
	  END
    END;
    RETURN @v_return;
   END;
End
GO

Now let’s test it against a selection of all possible geometry types

select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
POINT(0 1 2)',0)) as gtype 
union all select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTIPOINT((0 0 0), 
(1 1 1), 
(2 2 2), 
(3 3 3))',0)) as gtype 
union all select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
LINESTRING(0 0, 1 1)',0)) as gtype 
union all select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTILINESTRING(
(0 0,1 1,1 2),
(2 3,3 2,5 4))',0)) as gtype 
union all select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
POLYGON(
(326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0),
(326500.0 5455500.0,326550.0 5455200.0,326450.0 5455200.0,326500.0 5455500.0))',0)) as gtype 
union all SELECT dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTIPOLYGON(
((326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0),
	(326500.0 5455500.0,326550.0 5455200.0,326450.0 5455200.0,326500.0 5455500.0)),
((321000.0 5450000.0,322000.0 5450000.0,321500.0 5451000.0,321000.0 5450000.0)))',0)) as gtype 
union all select dbo.geometry_type(geometry::STGeomFromText('
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(
POINT(2 3 4),
LINESTRING(2 3 4,3 4 5),
POLYGON((326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0)),
POINT(4 5))',0));

gtype
Point
MultiPoint
LineString
MultiLineString
Polygon
MultiPolygon
GeometryCollection:Point:LineString:Polygon

But what if I want to create a single string that describes all the geometries in a particular table?

Here is one way to do this via XML aggregation.

WITH geometry_Types AS 
(
SELECT distinct dbo.geometry_type(a.geom) as gtype
  FROM (select           geometry::STGeomFromText('
POINT(0 1 2)',0) as geom
		union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTIPOINT((0 0 0), 
(1 1 1), 
(2 2 2), 
(3 3 3))',0) as geom
		union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
LINESTRING(0 0, 1 1)',0) as geom
		union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTILINESTRING(
(0 0,1 1,1 2),
(2 3,3 2,5 4))',0) as geom
		union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
POLYGON(
(326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0),
(326500.0 5455500.0,326550.0 5455200.0,326450.0 5455200.0,326500.0 5455500.0))',0) as geom
		union all SELECT geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTIPOLYGON(
((326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0),
 (326500.0 5455500.0,326550.0 5455200.0,326450.0 5455200.0,326500.0 5455500.0)),
((321000.0 5450000.0,322000.0 5450000.0,321500.0 5451000.0,321000.0 5450000.0)))',0) as geom
		union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(
POINT(2 3 4),
LINESTRING(2 3 4,3 4 5),
POLYGON((326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0)),
POINT(4 5))',0) as geom
	   ) a
)
SELECT (STUFF((SELECT DISTINCT ':' + a.gtype
                 FROM geometry_types a
                ORDER BY ':' + a.gtype
                FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE, ROOT).value('root[1]','nvarchar(max)'),1,1,'')
        ) as GeometryTypes;

GeometryTypes
GeometryCollection:Point:LineString:Polygon:LineString:MultiLineString:MultiPoint:MultiPolygon:Point:Polygon



Notice how the list is not unique. Here is one method of making it unique.

WITH geometries AS 
(
select           geometry::STGeomFromText('
POINT(0 1 2)',0) as geom
union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTIPOINT((0 0 0), 
(1 1 1), 
(2 2 2), 
(3 3 3))',0) as geom
union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
LINESTRING(0 0, 1 1)',0) as geom
union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTILINESTRING(
(0 0,1 1,1 2),
(2 3,3 2,5 4))',0) as geom
union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
POLYGON(
(326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0),
(326500.0 5455500.0,326550.0 5455200.0,326450.0 5455200.0,326500.0 5455500.0))',0) as geom
union all SELECT geometry::STGeomFromText('
MULTIPOLYGON(
((326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0),
 (326500.0 5455500.0,326550.0 5455200.0,326450.0 5455200.0,326500.0 5455500.0)),
((321000.0 5450000.0,322000.0 5450000.0,321500.0 5451000.0,321000.0 5450000.0)))',0) as geom
union all select geometry::STGeomFromText('
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(
POINT(2 3 4),
LINESTRING(2 3 4,3 4 5),
POLYGON((326000.0 5455000.0,327000.0 5455000.0,326500.0 5456000.0,326000.0 5455000.0)),
POINT(4 5))',0) as geom
)
SELECT (STUFF((SELECT DISTINCT ':' + a.gtype
                 FROM ( select distinct t.token as gtype
                          from geometries a
                               cross apply 
                               dbo.Tokenizer(dbo.geometry_type(a.geom),':') as t 
                       ) a
                 ORDER BY ':' + a.gtype
              FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE, ROOT).value('root[1]','nvarchar(max)'),1,1,'')
            ) as GeometryTypes;

GeometryTypes
GeometryCollection:LineString:MultiLineString:MultiPoint:MultiPolygon:Point:Polygon



Finally, show how we can use the function with geography type data.

select dbo.Geometry_Type(
           dbo.MBR2GEOMETRY(147,-44,148,-43,4326).STDifference(
               dbo.MBR2GEOMETRY(147.4,-43.6,147.6,-43.2,4326) ).STUnion(
                   dbo.MBR2GEOMETRY(150,-44,151,-43,4326) ) ) as geogtypes;

geogtypes
MultiPolygon



I hope this function is useful to someone.

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