2.1 GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY Structures

The GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY structures are serialized by using the binary format described later in this section. Each structure contains several fixed fields (or header fields) and building elements<2> that are repeated, as necessary, to describe the geography fully.

The GEOGRAPHY POINT and GEOMETRY POINT structures contain the coordinates for an individual point and are repeated for as many points as are present in the GEOGRAPHY or GEOMETRY structure. One shape structure appears for each OGC simple feature that is contained in the GEOGRAPHY or GEOMETRY structure. A shape can consist of multiple figures, each of which is defined by a single figure structure. The GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY structures contain flags and counts that indicate how many of these building elements are contained in the GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY structures.

The structures that are used to transfer geography and geometry data types are identical. Therefore, in the remainder of this document, the term "GEOGRAPHY structure" refers to both the GEOGRAPHY and GEOMETRY structures, except where it is necessary to distinguish between the two structures. Likewise, "geography data type" refers to both the geography and geometry protocol server data types.

Note The term "GEOGRAPHY POINT structure" does not also refer to the GEOMETRY POINT structure in this document.