Spatial Extender

Spatial Extender leverages the power of SQL for geographical analysis by providing a set of structured UDTs for storing geographical data such as coordinates. It also provides UDFs for comparing and analyzing the data in SQL statements.

Analyzing Geographical Data

Standard SQL is limited in its ability to analyze geographical data stored in a database. Simple arithmetic operations and math functions exist to manipulate numeric data such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. When attempting more complex calculation, such as geometric intersections, the SQL statements will be very complicated. It is difficult to perform these calculations in SQL statements.

Spatial Extender simplifies geographical analysis by allowing you to store, manage, and analyze geographic features in a relational database. It enables SQL statements to generate, analyze, and exploit spatial information and stores multidimensional coordinates, lines, and geometric shapes using DB2 structured data types. It adds many functions and features that can interpret these structured data types. For example, Spatial Extender can be used to calculate information such as proximity of office buildings or the size of a flood zone.