9. FAQ

Use the sstr function to get a human-readable string-representation of a data object. Check the corresponding type definition to get to know what exactly the values mean.

mysql> SELECT spoint( '(10d,20d)' );
+---------------------------------------+
| spoint( '(10d,20d)' )                 |
+---------------------------------------+
| PHB0PodE50oYV8Y/h0TnShhX1j88dHA+AA==  |
+---------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)


mysql> SELECT sstr( spoint( '(10d,20d)' ));
+-------------------------------+
| sstr( spoint( '(10d,20d)' ))  |
+-------------------------------+
| (0.1745329252 , 0.3490658504) |
+-------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)


mysql> SELECT sstr( 'PHB0PodE50oYV8Y/h0TnShhX1j88dHA+AA==' );
+------------------------------------------------+
| sstr( 'PHB0PodE50oYV8Y/h0TnShhX1j88dHA+AA==' ) |
+------------------------------------------------+
| (0.1745329252 , 0.3490658504)                  |
+------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Use the following expression

mysql> SET sphere_outmode="DEG";

before anything else. If one then prints e.g. a mysql_sphere point (with sstr), the values will be given in degree. Default unit is radians. You can switch back to radians using

mysql> SET sphere_outmode="RAD";

One can also swith to degree, arc minute, arc second representation with

mysql> SET sphere_outmode="DMS";

Please note that setting sphere_outmode does not affect the output of the distance operator sdist and length/circumference operators slength and scircum. Their results are always in radians (but you can convert this easily to degree using *180/pi() of course).

Use the sline_beg and sline_end functions to get the start and end point of a line.