st_difference function

Applies to: Databricks SQL Databricks Runtime 17.1 and above

Preview

This feature is in Public Preview.

Returns the point-set difference of the two input geometries as a 2D GEOMETRY.

Syntax

st_difference ( geoExpr1, geoExpr2 )

Arguments

• geoExpr1: The first GEOMETRY value.
• geoExpr2: The second GEOMETRY value.

Returns

A value of type GEOMETRY, representing the point-set difference of the two input geometries.

The SRID of the returned GEOMETRY value is the common SRID of the input geometries.

The function returns NULL if any of the inputs is NULL.

Error conditions

• If any of the two input geometries is a geometry collection, an error is returned.
• If the two input geometries have different SRID values, the function returns ST_DIFFERENT_SRID_VALUES.

Examples

SQL

> SELECT st_astext(st_difference(st_geomfromtext('MULTIPOINT(EMPTY,4 3,5 6,-1 8)'),st_geomfromtext('POLYGON((0 0,10 0,0 10,0 0))')));
  MULTIPOINT((-1 8),(5 6))

Related functions

• st_union function
• st_intersection function