Description

Return the 1-based Nth element geometry of an input geometry which is a GEOMETRYCOLLECTION, MULTIPOINT, MULTILINESTRING, MULTICURVE, MULTI)POLYGON, or POLYHEDRALSURFACE. Otherwise, returns NULL.

	Index is 1-based as for OGC specs since version 0.8.0. Previous versions implemented this as 0-based instead.

	To extract all elements of a geometry, ST_Dump is more efficient and works for atomic geometries.

Enhanced: 2.0.0 support for Polyhedral surfaces, Triangles and TIN was introduced.

Changed: 2.0.0 Prior versions would return NULL for singular geometries. This was changed to return the geometry for ST_GeometryN(..,1) case.

This method implements the OGC Simple Features Implementation Specification for SQL 1.1.

This method implements the SQL/MM specification. SQL-MM 3: 9.1.5

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

This method supports Circular Strings and Curves

This function supports Polyhedral surfaces.

This function supports Triangles and Triangulated Irregular Network Surfaces (TIN).

Standard Examples

--Extracting a subset of points from a 3d multipoint
SELECT n, ST_AsEWKT(ST_GeometryN(geom, n)) As geomewkt
FROM (
VALUES (ST_GeomFromEWKT('MULTIPOINT((1 2 7), (3 4 7), (5 6 7), (8 9 10))') ),
( ST_GeomFromEWKT('MULTICURVE(CIRCULARSTRING(2.5 2.5,4.5 2.5, 3.5 3.5), (10 11, 12 11))') )
	)As foo(geom)
	CROSS JOIN generate_series(1,100) n
WHERE n <= ST_NumGeometries(geom);

 n |               geomewkt
---+-----------------------------------------
 1 | POINT(1 2 7)
 2 | POINT(3 4 7)
 3 | POINT(5 6 7)
 4 | POINT(8 9 10)
 1 | CIRCULARSTRING(2.5 2.5,4.5 2.5,3.5 3.5)
 2 | LINESTRING(10 11,12 11)


--Extracting all geometries (useful when you want to assign an id)
SELECT gid, n, ST_GeometryN(geom, n)
FROM sometable CROSS JOIN generate_series(1,100) n
WHERE n <= ST_NumGeometries(geom);

Polyhedral Surfaces, TIN and Triangle Examples

-- Polyhedral surface example
-- Break a Polyhedral surface into its faces
SELECT ST_AsEWKT(ST_GeometryN(p_geom,3)) As geom_ewkt
  FROM (SELECT ST_GeomFromEWKT('POLYHEDRALSURFACE(
((0 0 0, 0 0 1, 0 1 1, 0 1 0, 0 0 0)),
((0 0 0, 0 1 0, 1 1 0, 1 0 0, 0 0 0)),
((0 0 0, 1 0 0, 1 0 1, 0 0 1, 0 0 0)),
((1 1 0, 1 1 1, 1 0 1, 1 0 0, 1 1 0)),
((0 1 0, 0 1 1, 1 1 1, 1 1 0, 0 1 0)),
((0 0 1, 1 0 1, 1 1 1, 0 1 1, 0 0 1))
)')  AS p_geom )  AS a;

                geom_ewkt
------------------------------------------
 POLYGON((0 0 0,1 0 0,1 0 1,0 0 1,0 0 0))

-- TIN --
SELECT ST_AsEWKT(ST_GeometryN(geom,2)) as wkt
  FROM
    (SELECT
       ST_GeomFromEWKT('TIN (((
                0 0 0,
                0 0 1,
                0 1 0,
                0 0 0
            )), ((
                0 0 0,
                0 1 0,
                1 1 0,
                0 0 0
            ))
            )')  AS geom
    ) AS g;
-- result --
                 wkt
-------------------------------------
 TRIANGLE((0 0 0,0 1 0,1 1 0,0 0 0))

See Also

ST_Dump, ST_NumGeometries