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I am trying to follow PostGIS ST_Buffer Radius Help to use a 50 meter distance but postgis is returning an error.

I am trying the following SQL,

SELECT id FROM table 
WHERE ST_DWithin(ST_GeogFromText('SRID=4326;POINT(-3.165356 55.926665)'), 
      geography(geometry), 50);

The hints indicated at ST_GeogFromText are,

  • function st_geogfromtext(unknown) does not exist at character 92
  • No function matches the given name and argument types. You might need to add explicit type casts.

Any help/alternatives would be appreciated.

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2 Answers 2

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As mentioned in docs:

For Geometries: The distance is specified in units defined by the spatial reference system of the geometries.

If your data is in SRID=4326 the distance you are specifying is in radians.

You either have to use ST_Transform and meter based coordinate system, or one of the two functions: ST_Distance_Sphere (faster, less accurate) or ST_Distance_Spheroid.

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  • Thank you for your answer. I used the functions above and they indeed return meters but i can only use them to calculate a distance between two latlong geometries and I need to use it to calculate distance from polygon edges. I thought of a solution with the above info, I could use st_closestPoint() to my polygon and then st_distance_sphere() which will do the trick. Problem is I am using postgis 1.4 and st_closestPoint() is unavailable. Also, I would like to use minimum code because ST_WDistance() will return a simple true/false whilst the other alternatives need more coding.
    – Antony
    Commented Sep 3, 2012 at 15:21
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You need PostGIS 1.5 or greater to have the geography type. The older versions have the ST_Distance_Spher*() functions, but as you note, they only work for points.

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