The distance should be in the projection units, which for 4326 is decimal
degrees, and if you want meters you'll need to convert the results to meters.
But first, I suspect your data is not in 4326 then if you get 1179. Make sure
you are using the SRID when inserting them
> update address set geog=ST_GeographyFromText('POINT('||lon||'
> '||lat||')',4326) where id=?;
Also see
http://postgis.refractions.net/docs/ST_Distance.html
hth
charles
On Mar 13, 2012, at 2:58 AM, Stuart Guthrie wrote:
> Could it be returning a distance in decimal miles? I'm out by around 1.6 -
> 1.6km = 1mile?
>
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 5:43 PM, Stuart Guthrie <stuartguth...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> OK, I'm a newbie to postgis but an old-timer with open source in general.
>
> Sorry to bother everyone but this problem is driving me a little nuts.
>
> I've bought the 'postgis in action' book and now I think I still know nothing.
>
> I'm trying to store long lats and do queries on them to establish distance
> and use that for reporting.
>
> I'm using this to update the table 'address'
>
> update address set geog=ST_GeographyFromText('POINT('||lon||' '||lat||')')
> where id=?;
>
> the address table field 'geog' has this definition:
>
> geog geography(Point,4326)
>
> When I compare two addresses that I know are around 1800m apart I get this:
>
> select a.addressline2, a.suburb, ST_Y(a.geog::geometry),
> ST_X(a.geog::geometry), b.addressline2,b.suburb,ST_Y(b.geog::geometry),
> ST_X(b.geog::geometry), ST_distance(a.geog,b.geog ) from address a join
> address b on b.id=41491 where a.id=1238 ;
>
> addressline2 | suburb | st_y | st_x | addressline2 |
> suburb | st_y | st_x | st_distance
> ---------------+--------+-------------+-------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------------
> 140 Sussex St | Sydney | -33.8692429 | 151.2036312 | 1 Riley Street | Surry
> Hills | -33.8726426 | 151.2157115 | 1179.61881540556
>
> Postgis says they are 1179.61m apart.
>
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