[postgis-devel] [PostGIS] #259: ST_Distance geography throws an error with empty geographies

[PostGIS]

#259: ST_Distance geography throws an error with empty geographies
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  Reporter:  robe     |       Owner:  pramsey      
      Type:  defect   |      Status:  closed       
  Priority:  medium   |   Milestone:  postgis 1.5.0
 Component:  postgis  |     Version:               
Resolution:  fixed    |    Keywords:               
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Comment (by robe):

 Okay I'm fine with NULL.  Don't care to argue the philosophy of where or
 where not an empty geometry is located in the world.  However all I'm
 saying is geography distance and geometry distance should behave
 consistently.  So if you are going to change it to NULL -- we should
 probably do the same for geometry distance. or we can say not to bother
 since geography is new we can break old habits.  I feel very unstrongly
 about the choice of NULL and 0 (and lukewarm about maintaining
 consistency) -- so I leave it up to the rest of you to decide.

 FWIW:  SQL Server 2008 returns NULL when I do this.

 SELECT geometry::STGeomFromText('POLYGON
 EMPTY',4326).STDistance(geometry::STGeomFromText('POLYGON EMPTY',4326))

 Wonder how other databases react to this question.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/ticket/259#comment:7>
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