Geospatial functions

Preview Snowflake geospatial functions in Snowflake compatibility mode.

Function	Support	Notes
`TO_GEOGRAPHY`	With limitations	Parses WKT. The value renders as WKB hex where Snowflake renders GeoJSON, and coordinates are quantized rather than kept exactly.
`ST_MAKEPOINT`, `ST_POINT`, `ST_GEOMPOINT`, `ST_MAKEGEOMPOINT`	With limitations	One function here. Renders as WKB hex, as above.
`ST_ASTEXT`, `ST_ASGEOJSON`	Supported	The portable ways to read a geography back.
`ST_X`, `ST_Y`	Supported
`ST_CONTAINS`, `ST_COVERS`, `ST_INTERSECTS`	Supported
`ST_DISTANCE`	Supported
`ST_ASBINARY`, `ST_ASEWKB`	With limitations	Returned as hex text rather than as a binary value.
`H3_CELL_TO_BOUNDARY`, `H3_CELL_TO_CHILDREN`, `H3_CELL_TO_CHILDREN_STRING`, `H3_CELL_TO_CHILDREN_STRINGS`, `H3_CELL_TO_POINT`, `H3_COMPACT_CELLS`, `H3_COMPACT_CELLS_STRINGS`, `H3_COVERAGE`, `H3_COVERAGE_STRINGS`, `H3_GET_RESOLUTION`, `H3_GRID_DISK`, `H3_GRID_DISTANCE`, `H3_GRID_PATH`, `H3_INT_TO_STRING`, `H3_IS_PENTAGON`, `H3_IS_VALID_CELL`, `H3_LATLNG_TO_CELL`, `H3_LATLNG_TO_CELL_STRING`, `H3_POINT_TO_CELL`, `H3_POINT_TO_CELL_STRING`, `H3_STRING_TO_INT`, `H3_TRY_COVERAGE`, `H3_TRY_COVERAGE_STRINGS`, `H3_TRY_GRID_DISTANCE`, `H3_TRY_GRID_PATH`, `H3_TRY_POLYGON_TO_CELLS`, `H3_TRY_POLYGON_TO_CELLS_STRINGS`, `H3_UNCOMPACT_CELLS`, `H3_UNCOMPACT_CELLS_STRINGS`, `HAVERSINE`, `ST_AREA`, `ST_ASEWKT`, `ST_ASWKB`, `ST_ASWKT`, `ST_AZIMUTH`, `ST_BUFFER`, `ST_CENTROID`, `ST_COLLECT`, `ST_COVEREDBY`, `ST_DIFFERENCE`, `ST_DIMENSION`, `ST_DISJOINT`, `ST_DWITHIN`, `ST_ENVELOPE`, `ST_GEOHASH`, `ST_HAUSDORFFDISTANCE`, `ST_INTERSECTION`, `ST_INTERSECTION_AGG`, `ST_ISREPAIRED`, `ST_ISVALID`, `ST_LENGTH`, `ST_MAKELINE`, `ST_NPOINTS`, `ST_NUMPOINTS`, `ST_PERIMETER`, `ST_SETSRID`, `ST_SIMPLIFY`, `ST_SRID`, `ST_SYMDIFFERENCE`, `ST_UNION`, `ST_UNION_AGG`, `ST_WITHIN`, `ST_XMAX`, `ST_XMIN`, `ST_YMAX`, `ST_YMIN`	Not supported

Limitations

A GEOGRAPHY renders as WKB hex, where Snowflake renders GeoJSON. The shape is the same, but a client reading the output text sees something different. ST_ASTEXT and ST_ASGEOJSON return the same text in both systems and are the portable way to read one. Coordinates are quantized when a geography is built, so a value does not necessarily come back unchanged: ST_X(TO_GEOGRAPHY('POINT(1 2)')) returns 0.9999999999999998 here and 1 in Snowflake. This matters for an equality test on a coordinate, and not for a distance or a containment check. The H3_* family and the geometry (planar) functions have no equivalent; see Data types for why GEOMETRY is not supported.

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Limitations

​Limitations

Limitations