The ST_GeometryType() function

The ST_GeometryType() function takes an ST_Geometry object and returns its geometry type as a string.

Syntax

ST_GeometryType (g1 ST_Geometry)

Return type

VARCHAR(32) containing one of the following text strings:

st_point
st_linestring
st_polygon
st_multipoint
st_multilinestring
st_multipolygon

Example

The geometrytype_test table contains the g1 ST_Geometry column:

CREATE TABLE geometrytype_test(g1 ST_Geometry);

The following INSERT statements insert each geometry subclass into the g1 column:

INSERT INTO geometrytype_test VALUES(
   ST_GeomFromText('point (10.02 20.01)',1000)
);

INSERT INTO geometryType_test VALUES(
   ST_GeomFromText('linestring (10.01 20.01, 10.01 30.01, 10.01 40.01)', 1000)
);

INSERT INTO geometrytype_test VALUES(
   ST_GeomFromText('polygon ((10.02 20.01,11.92 35.64,25.02
34.15,19.15 33.94, 10.02 20.01))',1000)
);

INSERT INTO geometrytype_test VALUES(
   ST_GeomFromText('multipoint (10.02 20.01,10.32 23.98,11.92 25.64)', 1000)
);

INSERT INTO geometrytype_test VALUES(
   ST_GeomFromText('multilinestring ((10.02 20.01,10.32
23.98,11.92 25.64),(9.55 23.75,15.36 30.11))',1000)
);

INSERT INTO geometrytype_test VALUES(
   ST_GeomFromText('multipolygon (((10.02 20.01,11.92 35.64,25.02
34.15,19.15 33.94 ,10.02 20.01)),((51.71 21.73,73.36 27.04,71.52
32.87,52.43 31.90,51.71 21.73)))'
,1000)
);

The following query lists the geometry type of each subclass stored in the g1 geometry column:

SELECT ST_GeometryType(g1) Geometry_type
   FROM geometrytype_test;


geometry_type  st_point 

geometry_type  st_linestring 

geometry_type  st_polygon 

geometry_type  st_multipoint 

geometry_type  st_multilinestring 

geometry_type  st_multipolygon