ST_ContainsProperly
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Name

ST_ContainsProperly — Tests if every point of B lies in the interior of A

Synopsis

boolean ST_ContainsProperly(geometry geomA, geometry geomB);

Description

Returns true if every point of B lies in the interior of A (or equivalently, no point of B lies in the the boundary or exterior of A).

In mathematical terms: ST_ContainsProperly(A, B) ⇔ Int(A) ⋂ B = B

A contains B properly if the DE-9IM Intersection Matrix for the two geometries matches [T**FF*FF*]

A does not properly contain itself, but does contain itself.

A use for this predicate is computing the intersections of a set of geometries with a large polygonal geometry. Since intersection is a fairly slow operation, it can be more efficient to use containsProperly to filter out test geometries which lie fully inside the area. In these cases the intersection is known a priori to be exactly the original test geometry.

[Note]

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_ContainsProperly.
[Note]

The advantage of this predicate over ST_Contains and ST_Intersects is that it can be computed more efficiently, with no need to compute topology at individual points.

Performed by the GEOS module.

Availability: 1.4.0

[Important]

Enhanced: 3.0.0 enabled support for GEOMETRYCOLLECTION
[Important]

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

Examples

  --a circle within a circle
  SELECT ST_ContainsProperly(smallc, bigc) As smallcontainspropbig,
  ST_ContainsProperly(bigc,smallc) As bigcontainspropsmall,
  ST_ContainsProperly(bigc, ST_Union(smallc, bigc)) as bigcontainspropunion,
  ST_Equals(bigc, ST_Union(smallc, bigc)) as bigisunion,
  ST_Covers(bigc, ST_ExteriorRing(bigc)) As bigcoversexterior,
  ST_ContainsProperly(bigc, ST_ExteriorRing(bigc)) As bigcontainsexterior
  FROM (SELECT ST_Buffer(ST_GeomFromText('POINT(1 2)'), 10) As smallc,
  ST_Buffer(ST_GeomFromText('POINT(1 2)'), 20) As bigc) As foo;
  --Result
  smallcontainspropbig | bigcontainspropsmall | bigcontainspropunion | bigisunion | bigcoversexterior | bigcontainsexterior
------------------+------------------+------------------+------------+-------------------+---------------------
 f                     | t                    | f                    | t          | t                 | f

 --example demonstrating difference between contains and contains properly
 SELECT ST_GeometryType(geomA) As geomtype, ST_Contains(geomA,geomA) AS acontainsa, ST_ContainsProperly(geomA, geomA) AS acontainspropa,
 ST_Contains(geomA, ST_Boundary(geomA)) As acontainsba, ST_ContainsProperly(geomA, ST_Boundary(geomA)) As acontainspropba
 FROM (VALUES ( ST_Buffer(ST_Point(1,1), 5,1) ),
      ( ST_MakeLine(ST_Point(1,1), ST_Point(-1,-1) ) ),
      ( ST_Point(1,1) )
  ) As foo(geomA);

  geomtype    | acontainsa | acontainspropa | acontainsba | acontainspropba
--------------+------------+----------------+-------------+-----------------
ST_Polygon    | t          | f              | f           | f
ST_LineString | t          | f              | f           | f
ST_Point      | t          | t              | f           | f