[postgis-users] Integer geometry type

[Stephen V. Mather]

> Would it be possible to specify a special geometry type using integer values instead of doubles?

Very intriguing.  Regarding integer geometry (as long as we are spitballing), what about taking it a step further and essentially defining the geometry by something similar to ST_SnapToGrid-- a slightly more complicated approach, but may be more generic, and could use integers for the underlying approach.

All that said, AFAIU, the underlying library, GEOS, would still cast the values back to float to do geometry calculations, which may be just fine, as floating point calculations are often first class citizens on processors.  So (speaking not as a PostGIS developer...) the speed increases you are seeing may be the result of IO improvements-- sheer data volume reductions, not computational reductions.

Anyway, very interesting.
Best,
Steve

postscript:

I wouldn't round to a foot with LiDAR-- your precision is irrelevant, but your relative accuracy may be in the sub-inch/centimeter range.  Certainly would bin well to hundredths of a unit however.

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