Description

Returns TRUE if geometry A is completely inside geometry B. For this function to make sense, the source geometries must both be of the same coordinate projection, having the same SRID. It is a given that if ST_Within(A,B) is true and ST_Within(B,A) is true, then the two geometries are considered spatially equal.

A subtlety of this definition is that the boundary of a geometry is not within the geometry. This means that lines and points lying in the boundary of a polygon or line are not within the geometry. For further details see Subtleties of OGC Covers, Contains, Within. (The ST_CoveredBy predicate provides a more inclusive relationship).

ST_Within is the inverse of ST_Contains. So, ST_Within(A,B) = ST_Contains(B,A).

	This function automatically includes a bounding box comparison that makes use of any spatial indexes that are available on the geometries. To avoid index use, use the function _ST_Within.

Performed by the GEOS module

Enhanced: 2.3.0 Enhancement to PIP short-circuit for geometry extended to support MultiPoints with few points. Prior versions only supported point in polygon.

	Enhanced: 3.0.0 enabled support for GEOMETRYCOLLECTION

	Do not use this function with invalid geometries. You will get unexpected results.

NOTE: this is the "allowable" version that returns a boolean, not an integer.

This method implements the OGC Simple Features Implementation Specification for SQL 1.1. s2.1.1.2 // s2.1.13.3 - a.Relate(b, 'T*F**F***')

This method implements the SQL/MM specification. SQL-MM 3: 5.1.30

Examples

--a circle within a circle
SELECT ST_Within(smallc,smallc) As smallinsmall,
  ST_Within(smallc, bigc) As smallinbig,
  ST_Within(bigc,smallc) As biginsmall,
  ST_Within(ST_Union(smallc, bigc), bigc) as unioninbig,
  ST_Within(bigc, ST_Union(smallc, bigc)) as biginunion,
  ST_Equals(bigc, ST_Union(smallc, bigc)) as bigisunion
FROM
(
SELECT ST_Buffer(ST_GeomFromText('POINT(50 50)'), 20) As smallc,
  ST_Buffer(ST_GeomFromText('POINT(50 50)'), 40) As bigc) As foo;
--Result
 smallinsmall | smallinbig | biginsmall | unioninbig | biginunion | bigisunion
--------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
 t            | t          | f          | t          | t          | t
(1 row)
    

See Also

ST_Contains, ST_CoveredBy, ST_Equals, ST_IsValid