Spatial Data Types (GEOMETRY and GEOGRAPHY) in SQL Server 2008

Spatial Data Types (GEOMETRY and GEOGRAPHY) in SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 provides support for geographical data through the inclusion of new spatial data types, which you can use to store and manipulate location-based information. These native data types come in the form of two new data types viz. GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY. These two new data types support the two primary areas of spatial model/data viz. Geodetic model and Planar model. Geodetic model/data is sometimes called round earth because it assumes a roughly spherical model of the world using industry standard ellipsoid such as WGS84, the projection used by Global Position System (GPS) applications whereas Planar model assumes a flat projection and is therefore sometimes called flat earth and data is stored as points, lines, and polygons on a flat surface. To learn more about this new feature click here.