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9.34.6. Defining a Geometry Index

The below sequence defines a table called geo and a geometry index on its geo column.

create table GEO (ID bigint, GEO any, primary key (ID))
 alter index geo on geo partition (id int);

CREATE TABLE GEO_INX ( X real no compress,
                       Y real no compress,
                       X2 real no compress,
                       Y2 real no compress,
                       id bigint no compress,
                       primary key (X, Y, X2, Y2, id))
                       ALTER INDEX geo_inx ON geo_inx PARTITION (id int);

INSERT INTO sys_vt_index ( vi_table,
                           vi_index,
                           vi_col,
                           vi_id_col,
                           vi_index_table,
                           vi_id_is_pk,
                           vi_options)
  VALUES ('DB.DBA.GEO',
          'GEO',
          'GEO',
          'ID',
          'DB.DBA.GEO_INX',
          1,
          'G');

-- Reload the changed schema
__ddl_changed ('DB.DBA.GEO');

A geometry index is a table of always five columns, the first 4 are the lower x, y and higher x, y of the object's bounding box, id is the identifier of the object, a foreign key into the table holding the geometries. In a cluster setting the geometry index must be partitioned on the id column. The columns of a geometry index must never be compressed, hence the mandatory no compress declaration.

Geometry indices are declared in the sys_vt_index table, which also declares text indices. The G in the options column declares that this is a geometry index.

A geometry index will be used when appropriate. The table holding the R tree with the bounding boxes should not normally be accessed directly. Explicit selects from a geometry index table with conditions on the columns will not generally work since the collation is not linear as in a regular index. Inserts by means other than geo_insert are not allowed.