[postgis-users] Re: Comparing Geometries with Different SRIDs

[Charlie Savage]

Reid Priedhorsky wrote:
> Charlie Savage wrote:
>>> The 2 point could be spatially equal given different SRIDS and 
>>> coordinates if they were projected to a common SRID. So should
>>> geometry operators silently Call st_transform to make the righthand
>>> match the lefthand before comparing? This would be quite the
>>> expensive operation.
>>
>> No. You can't automatically transform between different SRID values 
>> Think of the case of one geometry with an SRID value of 4326 and one
>>  with an SRID value of -1 (no coordinate system).
> 
> Exactly.
> 
>> So different SRID values, then the geometries are not equal.
> 
> No -- as Stanley said, the geometries could be in fact equal, but 
> expressed in different SRS. So if ST_Equals() returned False, it would 
> be wrong.

Maybe.  But returning "Operation permitted" is even worse because it 
means you can't do natural things like this (without extra annoying SRID 
checking code) in plpgsql:

IF (geom1 == geom2) ... END IF;

Or the example with the union earlier posted


>> It is up to the user to transform geometries to the same SRID before
>> calling ST_EQUALS.
> 
> Exactly. ;)

So, I still vote that st_equals will not blow up when comparing two 
geometries with different SRID values, it just will return false.

Charlie
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