Description

Computes the line which is the section of the input line starting and ending at the given fractional locations. The first argument must be a LINESTRING. The second and third arguments are values in the range [0, 1] representing the start and end locations as fractions of line length. The Z and M values are interpolated for added endpoints if present.

If startfraction and endfraction have the same value this is equivalent to ST_LineInterpolatePoint.

	This only works with LINESTRINGs. To use on contiguous MULTILINESTRINGs first join them with ST_LineMerge.

	Since release 1.1.1 this function interpolates M and Z values. Prior releases set Z and M to unspecified values.

Availability: 1.1.0, Z and M supported added in 1.1.1

Changed: 2.1.0. Up to 2.0.x this was called ST_Line_Substring.

This function supports 3d and will not drop the z-index.

Examples

A LineString seen with 1/3 midrange overlaid (0.333, 0.666)

SELECT ST_AsText(ST_LineSubstring( 'LINESTRING(25 50, 100 125, 150 190)', 0.333, 0.666));

										   st_astext
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINESTRING(69.2846934853974 94.2846934853974,100 125,111.700356260683 140.210463138888)

If start and end locations are the same, the result is a POINT.

SELECT ST_AsText(ST_LineSubstring( 'LINESTRING(25 50, 100 125, 150 190)', 0.333, 0.333));

                st_astext
------------------------------------------
 POINT(69.2846934853974 94.2846934853974)

A query to cut a LineString into sections of length 100 or shorter. It uses generate_series() with a CROSS JOIN LATERAL to produce the equivalent of a FOR loop.

WITH data(id, geom) AS (VALUES
        ( 'A', 'LINESTRING( 0 0, 200 0)'::geometry ),
        ( 'B', 'LINESTRING( 0 100, 350 100)'::geometry ),
        ( 'C', 'LINESTRING( 0 200, 50 200)'::geometry )
    )
SELECT id, i,
       ST_AsText( ST_LineSubstring( geom, startfrac, LEAST( endfrac, 1 )) ) AS geom
FROM (
    SELECT id, geom, ST_Length(geom) len, 100 sublen FROM data
    ) AS d
CROSS JOIN LATERAL (
    SELECT i, (sublen * i) / len AS startfrac,
              (sublen * (i+1)) / len AS endfrac
    FROM generate_series(0, floor( len / sublen )::integer ) AS t(i)
    -- skip last i if line length is exact multiple of sublen
    WHERE (sublen * i) / len <> 1.0
    ) AS d2;

 id | i |            geom
----+---+-----------------------------
 A  | 0 | LINESTRING(0 0,100 0)
 A  | 1 | LINESTRING(100 0,200 0)
 B  | 0 | LINESTRING(0 100,100 100)
 B  | 1 | LINESTRING(100 100,200 100)
 B  | 2 | LINESTRING(200 100,300 100)
 B  | 3 | LINESTRING(300 100,350 100)
 C  | 0 | LINESTRING(0 200,50 200)

See Also

ST_Length, ST_LineInterpolatePoint, ST_LineMerge