Re: Format of Pioint datatype.... lat/long or long/lat??

On 12/31/2013 12:45 PM, peterlen wrote:
> PostgreSQL has a geometric data type of "point". The format is listed as (x,
> y) but I am not sure if the X is to represent latitude or longitude. I have
> seen different systems that us X for either. Typically, coordinates should
> be read as lat/long but I have seen the opposite as well. An example in the
> help docs listed a point coordinate as x= longitude and y=latitude. Can
> someone clarify what the postgres standard is? What this will come down to
> is how built-in geospatial functions will interpret the point value.

point is just x,y, it doesn't understand the spherical lat/long math
(unless you install PostGIS and use its Geometry types which are fully
aware of spherical coords), that said, Latitude is generally used as X
(left/right, aka east/west), while Longitude is Y (up/down aka north/south)

--
john r pierce 37N 122W
somewhere on the middle of the left coast