MySQL has some powerful, and perhaps underused spatial extensions, but the most interesting functions are still unimplemented: “Note: Currently, MySQL does not implement these functions…”
Among those as-yet unimplemented functions is DISTANCE(). Alternatives can be found here and here, though neither is clean or simple. I wonder if a simple MBRContains() is good enough, though…

Posted June 10, 2008 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Technology. Tags: distance, geolocation, mysql, MySQL spatial functions, spatial functions, unimplemented, workaround. One Comment.

Found in the MySQL 5.0 Reference Manual:

Related(g1,g2,pattern_matrix)
Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the spatial relationship specified by pattern_matrix exists between g1 and g2. Returns –1 if the arguments are NULL. The pattern matrix is a string. Its specification will be noted here if this function is implemented.

(emphasis mine.)

Posted June 8, 2008 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Dispatches, Technology. Tags: documentation, funny, mysql, MySQL spatial functions, spatial functions, unimplemented. One Comment.