Categories:: Geospatial Functions

ST_DIFFERENCE¶

Given two input GEOGRAPHY objects, returns a GEOGRAPHY object that represents the points in the first object that are not in the second object (i.e. the difference between the two objects).

See also:: ST_INTERSECTION , ST_UNION , ST_SYMDIFFERENCE

Syntax¶

ST_DIFFERENCE( <geography_expression_1> , <geography_expression_2> )

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Arguments¶

geography_expression_1: A GEOGRAPHY object.
geography_expression_2: A GEOGRAPHY object.

Returns¶

The function returns a value of type GEOGRAPHY.

If all points of geography_expression_1 are in geography_expression_2 (i.e. the difference is an empty set of points), the function returns NULL.

Usage Notes¶

If any vertex of one input object is on the boundary of the other input object (excluding the vertices), the output might not be accurate.
The function is not guaranteed to produce normalized and/or minimal results. For example, an output could consist of a LineString containing several Points that actually forms just one straight segment.

Examples¶

The following example returns a GEOGRAPHY object that represents the difference between two input GEOGRAPHY objects:

ALTER SESSION SET GEOGRAPHY_OUTPUT_FORMAT = 'WKT';

SELECT ST_DIFFERENCE(
  TO_GEOGRAPHY('POLYGON((0 0, 1 0, 2 1, 1 2, 2 3, 1 4, 0 4, 0 0))'),
  TO_GEOGRAPHY('POLYGON((3 0, 3 4, 2 4, 1 3, 2 2, 1 1, 2 0, 3 0))'))
AS difference_between_objects;

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This example produces the following output:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DIFFERENCE_BETWEEN_OBJECTS                                                                                  |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| POLYGON((1 1,1.5 1.500171359,1 2,1.5 2.500285599,1 3,1.5 3.500399839,1 4,0 4,0 0,1 0,1.5 0.5000571198,1 1)) |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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The following images illustrate the differences in the areas that represent the input and output objects:

Input	Output