Preface

The Oracle Spatial User's Guide and Reference provides usage and reference information for indexing and storing spatial data and for developing spatial applications using Oracle Spatial and Oracle Locator.

Oracle Spatial requires the Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database 10g. It is a foundation for the deployment of enterprise-wide spatial information systems, and Web-based and wireless location-based applications requiring complex spatial data management. Oracle Locator is a feature of the Standard and Enterprise Editions of Oracle Database 10g. It offers a subset of Oracle Spatial capabilities (see Appendix B for a list of Locator features) typically required to support Internet and wireless service applications and partner-based geographic information system (GIS) solutions.

The Standard and Enterprise Editions of Oracle Database 10g have the same basic features. However, several advanced features, such as extended data types, are available only with the Enterprise Edition, and some of these features are optional. For example, to use Oracle Database 10g table partitioning, you must have the Enterprise Edition and the Partitioning Option.

For information about the differences between Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition and Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition and the features and options that are available to you, see Oracle Database New Features.

Note:

The relational geometry model of Oracle Spatial is no longer supported, effective with Oracle release 9.2. Only the object-relational model is supported.

This preface contains these topics:

Audience

Documentation Accessibility

Organization

Technologies Released Separately

Related Documentation

Conventions

Audience

This guide is intended for anyone who needs to store spatial data in an Oracle database.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Organization

This guide has two main parts (conceptual and usage information, and reference information) and a third part with supplementary information. The first part is organized for efficient learning about Oracle Spatial; it covers basic concepts and techniques first, and proceeds to more advanced material (such as coordinate systems, the linear referencing system, geocoding, and extending spatial indexing).This guide has the following elements.

Part I, " Conceptual and Usage Information "

Contains chapters with conceptual and usage information.

Chapter 1, " Spatial Concepts"

Explains important concepts and techniques that you need to know to use Spatial.

Chapter 2, " Spatial Data Types and Metadata"

Explains the data types and metadata for Spatial. It includes a complete simplified example of using Spatial, as well as several examples of spatial geometries.

Chapter 3, " Loading Spatial Data"

Explains how to load spatial data.

Chapter 4, " Indexing and Querying Spatial Data"

Explains how to index and query spatial data.

Chapter 5, " Geocoding Address Data"

Provides conceptual and usage information about support for geocoding.

Chapter 6, " Coordinate Systems (Spatial Reference Systems)"

Provides conceptual and usage information about coordinate system (spatial reference system) support.

Chapter 7, " Linear Referencing System"

Provides conceptual and usage information about the Oracle Spatial linear referencing system (LRS).

Chapter 8, " Spatial Analysis and Mining"

Provides conceptual and usage information about the Oracle Spatial analysis and mining features for data mining applications.

Chapter 9, " Extending Spatial Indexing Capabilities"

Explains how to extend the capabilities of Oracle Spatial indexing.

Part II, " Reference Information "

Contains chapters with reference information.

Chapter 10, " SQL Statements for Indexing Spatial Data"

Provides the syntax and semantics for SQL indexing statements.

Chapter 11, " SDO_GEOMETRY Object Type Methods"

Provides the syntax and semantics for methods used with the spatial object data type.

Chapter 12, " Spatial Operators "

Provides the syntax and semantics for operators used with the spatial object data type.

Chapter 13, " Geometry Subprograms"

Provides the syntax and semantics for the geometric functions and procedures.

Chapter 14, " Spatial Aggregate Functions"

Provides the syntax and semantics for the spatial aggregate functions.

Chapter 15, " Coordinate System Transformation Subprograms "

Provides the syntax and semantics for the coordinate system transformation functions and procedures.

Chapter 16, " Linear Referencing Subprograms "

Provides the syntax and semantics for the functions and procedures related to the Oracle Spatial linear referencing system (LRS).

Chapter 17, " SDO_MIGRATE Procedure "

Provides the syntax and semantics for the migration procedure.

Chapter 18, " Spatial Tuning Subprograms"

Provides the syntax and semantics for the spatial tuning functions and procedures.

Chapter 19, " Spatial Utility Subprograms"

Provides the syntax and semantics for the spatial utility functions and procedures.

Chapter 20, " Geocoding Subprograms "

Provides the syntax and semantics for the geocoding functions and procedures.

Chapter 21, " Spatial Analysis and Mining Subprograms"

Provides the syntax and semantics for the spatial analysis and mining functions and procedures.

Part III, " Supplementary Information "

Contains appendixes and a glossary.

Appendix A, " Installation, Compatibility, and Upgrade"

Describes installation, compatibility, and upgrade issues.

Appendix B, " Oracle Locator"

Describes Oracle Locator.

Appendix C, " Complex Spatial Queries: Examples"

Provides examples, with explanations, of queries that are more complex than the examples in the reference chapters.

Glossary

Defines important terms.

Technologies Released Separately

Technologies of interest to spatial application developers, but not officially part of Oracle Spatial, are sometimes made available through the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). To access the Spatial page on OTN, go to

http://otn.oracle.com/products/spatial/

Conventions

The following conventions are used in this guide:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points in an example mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in statements or commands mean that parts of the statement or command not directly related to the example have been omitted.
boldface text	Boldface text indicates a term defined in the text, the glossary, or in both locations.
`monospace text`	Monospace text is used for the names of parameters, files, and directory paths. It is also used for SQL and PL/SQL code examples.
italic text	Italic text is used for book titles, emphasis, and some special terms.
< >	Angle brackets enclose user-supplied names.
[ ]	Brackets enclose optional clauses from which you can choose one or none.