Re: Format of Pioint datatype.... lat/long or long/lat??

On 12/31/2013 01:09 PM, John R Pierce wrote:
> On 12/31/2013 12:45 PM, peterlen wrote:
>> PostgreSQL has a geometric data type of "point". The format is listed
>> as (x,
>> y) but I am not sure if the X is to represent latitude or longitude.
>> I have
>> seen different systems that us X for either. Typically, coordinates
>> should
>> be read as lat/long but I have seen the opposite as well. An example
>> in the
>> help docs listed a point coordinate as x= longitude and y=latitude. Can
>> someone clarify what the postgres standard is? What this will come
>> down to
>> is how built-in geospatial functions will interpret the point value.
>
>
> point is just x,y, it doesn't understand the spherical lat/long math
> (unless you install PostGIS and use its Geometry types which are fully
> aware of spherical coords), that said, Latitude is generally used as X
> (left/right, aka east/west), while Longitude is Y (up/down aka north/south)

I thought it was the other way around?

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--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)gmail(dot)com