ST_Centroid

Definition

ST_Centroid takes a polygon or multipolygon and returns the point that is in the center of the geometry's envelope. That means that the centroid point is halfway between the geometry's minimum and maximum x and y extents.

Syntax

Oracle and PostgreSQL

sde.st_centroid (polygon sde.st_geometry)
sde.st_centroid (multipolygon sde.st_geometry)

SQLite

st_centroid (polygon geometryblob)
st_centroid (multipolygon geometryblob)

Return type

ST_Point

Example

The city GIS technician wants to display the building footprint multipolygons as single points in a building density graphic. The building footprints are stored in the bfp table that was created and populated with the statements shown for each database.

Oracle

--Create and populate table
CREATE TABLE bfp (
 building_id integer,
 footprint sde.st_geometry);

INSERT INTO bfp VALUES (
 1,
 sde.st_polygon ('polygon ((0 0, 0 10, 10 10, 10 0, 0 0))', 4326)
);

INSERT INTO bfp VALUES (
 2,
 sde.st_polygon ('polygon ((20 0, 30 20, 40 0, 20 0))', 4326)
);

INSERT INTO bfp VALUES (
 3,
 sde.st_polygon ('polygon ((20 30, 25 35, 30 30, 20 30))', 4326)
);

--The ST_Centroid function returns the centroid of each building footprint multipolygon. 
--The ST_AsText function converts each centroid point into a text representation recognized by the application.
SELECT building_id,
 sde.st_astext (sde.st_centroid (footprint)) Centroid
 FROM bfp;

BUILDING_ID                   Centroid

   1                     POINT  (5.00000000 5.00000000)
   2                     POINT  (30.00000000 10.00000000)
   3                     POINT  (25.00000000 32.50000000)

PostgreSQL

--Create and populate table
CREATE TABLE bfp (
 building_id serial,
 footprint sde.st_geometry);

INSERT INTO bfp (footprint) VALUES (
 sde.st_polygon ('polygon ((0 0, 0 10, 10 10, 10 0, 0 0))', 4326)
);

INSERT INTO bfp (footprint) VALUES (
 sde.st_polygon ('polygon ((20 0, 30 20, 40 0, 20 0))', 4326)
);

INSERT INTO bfp (footprint) VALUES (
 sde.st_polygon ('polygon ((20 30, 25 35, 30 30, 20 30))', 4326)
);

--The ST_Centroid function returns the centroid of each building footprint multipolygon. 
--The ST_AsText function converts each centroid point into a text representation recognized by the application.
SELECT building_id, sde.st_astext (sde.st_centroid (footprint)) 
 AS centroid
 FROM bfp;

building_id                  centroid

   1                     POINT  (5 5)
   2                     POINT  (30 10)
   3                     POINT  (25 33)

SQLite

--Create table, add geometry column, and populate table
CREATE TABLE bfp (
 building_id integer primary key autoincrement not null
);

SELECT AddGeometryColumn (
 NULL,
 'bfp',
 'footprint',
 4326,
 'polygon',
 'xy',
 'null'
);

INSERT INTO bfp (footprint) VALUES (
 st_polygon ('polygon ((0 0, 0 10, 10 10, 10 0, 0 0))', 4326)
);

INSERT INTO bfp (footprint) VALUES (
 st_polygon ('polygon ((20 0, 30 20, 40 0, 20 0))', 4326)
);

INSERT INTO bfp (footprint) VALUES (
 st_polygon ('polygon ((20 30, 25 35, 30 30, 20 30))', 4326)
);

--The ST_Centroid function returns the centroid of each building footprint multipolygon. 
--The ST_AsText function converts each centroid point into a text representation recognized by the application.
SELECT building_id, st_astext (st_centroid (footprint)) 
 AS "centroid"
 FROM bfp;

building_id              centroid

   1                     POINT  (5.00000000 5.00000000)
   2                     POINT  (30.00000000 10.0000000)
   3                     POINT  (25.00000000 32.5000000)