PostGIS: Using a polygon to 'mask' linestrings returns both multi and linestrings

Question

I have a table of linestrings (OSM roads, in fact) that I'm displaying on a map. I want to filter them so that only those within a certain area are displayed- I've already done this with the coastline (a table of polygons) with great success, just using ST_Intersection. However, that doesn't appear to work on the linestrings. When I try something like this:

ST_Intersection(way,st_geomfromtext('POLYGON(([etc]))',900913))

I get the following:

Error : ERROR:  Geometry type (MultiLineString) does not match column type (LineString)

Presumably the ST_Intersection is returning multiple lines rather than the single one I am expecting- but not all do, because if I change the column to be MultiLineString then it complains that it can't insert a LineString.

How can I ensure that these MultiLineStrings and Linestrings are the same type, and can all be inserted together?

Answer 1

If you just need to make sure a MULTILINESTRING is returned, use ST_Multi:

ST_Multi — Returns the geometry as a MULTI* geometry. If the geometry is already a MULTI*, it is returned unchanged.

http://postgis.net/docs/ST_Multi.html