ST_DISTANCE

The ST_DISTANCE function calculates the shortest distance, measured as a geodesic arc between two GEOGRAPHY objects, measured in meters. It models the earth as a perfect sphere with a fixed radius of 6,371,008 meters.

If either input is empty, ST_DISTANCE will return NULL.

Syntax

ST_DISTANCE(<geo1>, <geo2>)

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Supported input types
<geo1>	The first GEOGRAPHY object to calculate the distance between.	GEOGRAPHY
<geo2>	The second GEOGRAPHY object to calculate the distance between.	GEOGRAPHY

Return Type

ST_DISTANCE returns a value of type DOUBLE PRECISION.

Example

The following code example constructs two Points from their WKT representations: One at the Statue of Liberty in New York City, and one at the Big Ben in London. It then returns the shortest distance between them, as measured as a geodesic arc, in meters:

SELECT ST_DISTANCE(
ST_GEOGFROMTEXT('POINT(-74.04447010745835 40.68924450077543)'),
ST_GEOGFROMTEXT('POINT(-0.12418551935155021 51.50086274661804)')
) AS result

Returns

result (DOUBLE PRECISION)
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