Impala Geospatial Functions

Impala supports a range of geospatial functions to facilitate spatial data processing and analysis, based on Apache Hive's implementation of ESRI functions.

Many functions return results in binary format (BINARY), these values can typically be interpreted as geometries, and they can be used with Hive functions similarly. It's not recommended to serialize geometries in this format, for compatibility, converting to Well-Known Binary format is recommended. Possible geometries returned as BINARY:

POINT
LINESTRING
POLYGON
MULTIPOINT
MULTILINESTRING
MULTIPOLYGON
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION

Coordinates for geometries may be 2D (x, y), 3D (x, y, z) or 4D (x, y, z, m). Geospatial functionality can be controlled through the startup flag GEOSPATIAL_LIBRARY.

By default, the library is set to HIVE_ESRI, enabling the Hive ESRI geospatial functions.
If geospatial functionality is not needed, it can be turned off by setting GEOSPATIAL_LIBRARY to NONE.

There are 3 types of ST_* functions:

Regular functions with one argument list and one return type.
Generic functions with multiple argument lists and overloads
Vararg functions with variable-length argument lists. The maximum number of arguments for vararg functions is limited to 14.

The list of supported functions:

ST_Area
ST_AsBinary
ST_AsGeoJson
ST_AsJson
ST_AsShape
ST_AsText
ST_Bin
ST_BinEnvelope
ST_Boundary
ST_Buffer
ST_Centroid
ST_Contains
ST_ConvexHull
ST_CoordDim
ST_Crosses
ST_Difference
ST_Dimension
ST_Disjoint
ST_Distance
ST_EndPoint
ST_Envelope
ST_EnvIntersects
ST_Equals
ST_ExteriorRing
ST_GeodesicLengthWGS84
ST_GeomCollection
ST_GeometryN
ST_GeometryType
ST_GeomFromGeoJson
ST_GeomFromJson
ST_GeomFromShape
ST_GeomFromText
ST_GeomFromWKB
ST_InteriorRingN
ST_Intersection
ST_Intersects
ST_Is3D
ST_IsClosed
ST_IsEmpty
ST_IsMeasured
ST_IsRing
ST_IsSimple
ST_Length
ST_LineFromWKB
ST_LineString
ST_M
ST_MaxM
ST_MaxX
ST_MaxY
ST_MaxZ
ST_MinM
ST_MinX
ST_MinY
ST_MinZ
ST_MLineFromWKB
ST_MPointFromWKB
ST_MPolyFromWKB
ST_MultiLineString
ST_MultiPoint
ST_MultiPolygon
ST_NumGeometries
ST_NumInteriorRing
ST_NumPoints
ST_Overlaps
ST_Point
ST_PointFromWKB
ST_PointN
ST_PointZ
ST_PolyFromWKB
ST_Polygon
ST_Relate
ST_SetSRID
ST_SRID
ST_StartPoint
ST_SymmetricDiff
ST_Touches
ST_Union
ST_Within
ST_X
ST_Y
ST_Z

ST_Area(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_AsBinary(BINARY geometry): Return type: BINARY
ST_AsGeoJson(BINARY geometry): Return type: STRING
ST_AsJson(BINARY geometry): Return type: STRING
ST_AsShape(BINARY geometry): Return type: BINARY
ST_AsText(BINARY geometry): Return type: STRING
ST_Bin([BIGINT, DOUBLE] binsize, [BINARY, STRING] point): Return type: BIGINT
ST_BinEnvelope([BIGINT, DOUBLE] binsize, [BINARY, STRING] point): Return type: BINARY
ST_BinEnvelope([BIGINT, DOUBLE] binsize, BIGINT bin_id): Return type: BINARY
ST_Boundary(BINARY geometry): Return type: BINARY
ST_Buffer(BINARY geometry, DOUBLE distance): Return type: BINARY
ST_Centroid(BINARY geometry): Return type: BINARY
ST_Contains([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_ConvexHull(BINARY geometry...): Return type: BINARY
ST_CoordDim(BINARY geometry): Return type: INT
ST_Crosses([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Difference(BINARY geometry1, BINARY geometry2): Return type: BINARY
ST_Dimension(BINARY geometry): Return type: INT
ST_Disjoint([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Distance(BINARY geometry1, BINARY geometry2): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_EndPoint(BINARY geometry): Return type: BINARY
ST_Envelope(BINARY geometry): Return type: BINARY
ST_EnvIntersects(BINARY geometry1, BINARY geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Equals([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_ExteriorRing(BINARY polygon): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeodesicLengthWGS84(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_GeomCollection(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomCollection(STRING wkt, INT wkid): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeometryN(BINARY geometry, INT n): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeometryType(BINARY geometry): Return type: STRING
ST_GeomFromGeoJson(STRING geojson_string): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromJson(STRING json_string): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromShape(BINARY shape): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromShape(BINARY shape, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromText(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromText(STRING wkt, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromWKB(BINARY wkb): Return type: BINARY
ST_GeomFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_InteriorRingN(BINARY polygon, INT n): Return type: BINARY
ST_Intersection([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BINARY
ST_Intersects([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Is3D(BINARY geometry): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_IsClosed(BINARY geometry): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_IsEmpty(BINARY geometry): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_IsMeasured(BINARY geometry): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_IsRing(BINARY geometry): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_IsSimple(BINARY geometry): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Length(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_LineFromWKB(BINARY wkb): Return type: BINARY
ST_LineFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_LineString(DOUBLE point1, DOUBLE point2 [, DOUBLE pointN, DOUBLE pointM]*): Return type: BINARY
ST_LineString(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_M(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MaxM(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MaxX(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MaxY(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MaxZ(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MinM(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MinX(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MinY(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MinZ(BINARY geometry): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_MLineFromWKB(BINARY wkb): Return type: BINARY
ST_MLineFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_MPointFromWKB(BINARY wkb): Return type: BINARY
ST_MPointFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_MPolyFromWKB(BINARY wkb): Return type: BINARY
ST_MPolyFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_MultiLineString(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_MultiPoint(DOUBLE x1, DOUBLE y1, [, DOUBLE xn, DOUBLE yn]): Return type: BINARY
ST_MultiPoint(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_MultiPolygon(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_NumGeometries(BINARY geometry): Return type: INT
ST_NumInteriorRing(BINARY polygon): Return type: INT
ST_NumPoints(BINARY linestring): Return type: INT
ST_Overlaps([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Point(DOUBLE x, DOUBLE y [, DOUBLE z [, DOUBLE m]]): Return type: BINARY
ST_PointFromWKB(BINARY wkb): Return type: BINARY
ST_PointFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_PointN(BINARY linestring, INT n): Return type: BINARY
ST_PointZ(DOUBLE x, DOUBLE y, DOUBLE z [, DOUBLE m]): Return type: BINARY
ST_PolyFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_PolyFromWKB(BINARY wkb, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_Relate(BINARY geometry1, BINARY geometry2, STRING pattern): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Polygon(DOUBLE x, DOUBLE y, [DOUBLE xn, DOUBLE yn]*): Return type: BINARY
ST_Polygon(STRING wkt): Return type: BINARY
ST_SetSRID(BINARY geometry, INT srid): Return type: BINARY
ST_SRID(BINARY geometry): Return type: INT
ST_StartPoint(BINARY linestring): Return type: BINARY
ST_SymmetricDiff(BINARY geometry1, BINARY geometry2): Return type: BINARY
ST_Touches([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_Union(BINARY geometry1, BINARY geometry2): Return type: BINARY
ST_Within([BINARY, STRING] geometry1, [BINARY, STRING] geometry2): Return type: BOOLEAN
ST_X(BINARY point): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_Y(BINARY point): Return type: DOUBLE
ST_Z(BINARY point): Return type: DOUBLE