Editing PostGIS

{{Short description|Geospatial extension for the PostgreSQL Database}}
{{Infobox software
| name = PostGIS
| logo = PostGIS logo.png
| logo size = 150px
| developer = Refractions Research, Paul Ramsey, Dave Blasby, Mark Cave-Ayland, Regina Obe, Sandro Santilli,  Olivier Courtin, Nicklas Avén, Bborie Park, Pierre Racine, Daniel Baston, Darafei Praliaskouski, Raúl Marín Rodríguez, Kevin Neufeld, Jeff Lounsbury, Chris Hodgson, Jorge Arévalo, Mateusz Loskot, Norman Vine, Carl Anderson, Ralph Mason, Klaus Foerster,  Bruno Wolff III, Markus Schaber
| released = {{Start date|2001|04|19}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|P348|P548=Q2804309}}                                    | latest release date    = {{Start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}|df=yes}}
| operating_system = [[Linux]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Mac OS X]], [[POSIX]]-compliant systems
| genre = [[Geographic information system]]
| license = [[GNU General Public License]] (version 2 or later)
| website = {{Official URL}}
}}

'''PostGIS''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|oʊ|s|t|dʒ|ɪ|s}} {{respell|POST|jis}}) is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the [[PostgreSQL]] object-relational database. PostGIS follows the [[Simple Features]] for SQL specification from the [[Open Geospatial Consortium]] (OGC).

PostGIS is implemented as a ''PostgreSQL external extension''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/external-extensions.html|title = H.4. Extensions|date = 10 February 2022}}</ref>

==Features==

* Geometry types for Points, LineStrings, Polygons, MultiPoints, MultiLineStrings, MultiPolygons, GeometryCollections, 3D types TINS and polyhedral surfaces, including solids.
* Spheroidal types under the geography datatype Points, LineStrings, Polygons, MultiPoints, MultiLineStrings, MultiPolygons and GeometryCollections.
* raster type - supports various pixel types and more than 1000 bands per raster. Since PostGIS 3, is a separate PostgreSQL extension called postgis_raster.
* SQL/MM Topology support - via PostgreSQL extension postgis_topology.
* Spatial predicates for determining the interactions of geometries using the 3x3 [[DE-9IM]] (provided by the [[GEOS (software library)|GEOS]] software library).
* Spatial operators for determining geospatial measurements like area, distance, length and perimeter.
* Spatial operators for determining geospatial set operations, like union, difference, symmetric difference and buffers (provided by GEOS).
* [[R-tree]]-over-[[GiST]] (Generalized Search Tree) spatial indexes for high speed spatial querying.
* Index selectivity support, to provide high performance [[query plan]]s for mixed spatial/non-spatial queries.

The PostGIS implementation is based on "light-weight" geometries and indexes optimized to reduce disk and [[memory footprint]].  Using light-weight geometries helps servers increase the amount of data migrated up from physical disk storage into RAM, improving query performance substantially.

PostGIS is registered as "implements the specified standard" for "Simple Features for SQL" by the OGC.<ref>[http://www.opengeospatial.org/resource/products/details/?pid=509 OGC Implementing Product Details] Open Geospatial Consortium</ref> PostGIS has not been certified as compliant by the OGC.

== History ==
{{Cquote|May of 2001, at that point I was running a small consulting company here in Victoria, working for the provincial government, mostly working in the geospatial field. Because all of our contracts came from the provincial government, we were very tied to the cycle of when they would release and sign contracts. And the government changed that year, so all the civil servants were very risk averse in terms of signing new contract contracts. They didn't know whether what their budget situation was going to be that year.<br><br>

So we ended up having like three months where we got almost no direct revenue. We, you know, didn't all go on vacation for three months. We were kind of young, excited about the field. So we thought, you know, let's see if we can build something to store the spatial data in a database. And we had used Postgres for one of our data processing projects the year previous, so we were kind of familiar with it. And that experimental work in the spring of 2001 ended up being released at the end of May 2001 as PostGIS version 0.1. |||Paul Ramsey (September 8, 2023) "[https://pathtocituscon.transistor.fm/episodes/why-people-care-about-postgis-and-postgres-with-paul-ramsey-regina-obe/transcript Why people care about PostGIS and Postgres]" Path To Citus Con}}
Refractions Research released the first version of PostGIS in 2001 under the [[GNU General Public License]]. After six [[release candidate]]s, a stable "1.0" version followed on April 19, 2005.

In 2006 the OGC registered PostGIS   as "implement[ing] the specified standard" for "Simple Features for SQL".<ref name="history">[http://refractions.net/products/postgis/history/ PostGIS History]</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|+ Release history <small>(as of 29th September 2024)</small>
|-
! scope="col" | Release
! scope="col" | First release
! scope="col" | Latest minor version
! scope="col" | Latest release
|-
! scope="row" | 1.0
| style=white-space:nowrap | 2005-04-19
| {{Version |o |1.0.6 |style=text-align:center; white-space:nowrap}}
| 2005-12-06<ref>[https://postgis.net/2005/12/06/postgis-1-0-6-released/ PostGIS 1.0.6 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1.1
| style=white-space:nowrap | 2005-12-21
| {{Version |o |1.1.7 |style=text-align:center; white-space:nowrap}}
| 2007-01-31<ref name="history" />
|-
! scope="row" | 1.2
| 2006-12-08
| {{Version |o |1.2.1 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2007-01-11<ref>[https://postgis.net/2007/01/11/postgis-1-2-1-release/ PostGIS 1.2.1 Release]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1.3
| 2007-08-09
| {{Version |o |1.3.6 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2009-05-06<ref>[https://postgis.net/2009/05/06/postgis-1-3-6-release/ PostGIS 1.3.6 Release]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1.4
| 2009-07-24
| {{Version |o |1.4.2 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2010-03-11<ref>[https://postgis.net/2010/03/11/postgis-1-4-2-release/ PostGIS 1.4.2 Release]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 1.5
| 2010-02-04
| {{Version |o |1.5.8 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2012-11-15<ref>[https://www.postgis.net/2012/11/15/postgis-1-5-8/ PostGIS 1.5.8 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 2.0
| 2012-04-03
| {{Version |o |2.0.7 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2015-04-06<ref>[https://postgis.net/2015/04/06/postgis-2.1.7/ PostGIS 2.0.7 and 2.1.7 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 2.1
| 2013-08-17
| {{Version |o |2.1.9 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2017-09-19<ref>[https://www.postgis.net/2017/09/19/postgis-2.1.9/ PostGIS 2.1.9 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 2.2
| 2015-10-07
| {{Version |o |2.2.8 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2018-11-22<ref>[https://postgis.net/2018/11/22/postgis-2.2.8/ PostGIS 2.2.8 EOL]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 2.3
| 2016-09-26
| {{Version |o |2.3.10 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2019-08-11<ref name="2019-08-11">[https://postgis.net/2019/08/11/postgis-patches/ PostGIS 3.0.0alpha4, 2.5.3, 2.4.8, 2.3.10 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 2.4
| 2017-09-30
| {{Version |o |2.4.10 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2022-04-24<ref name="2022-04-24">[https://postgis.net/2022/04/24/postgis-2.4.10/ PostGIS 2.4.10 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 2.5
| 2018-09-23
| {{Version |o |2.5.9 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2022-11-12<ref name="2022-11-12">[https://postgis.net/2022/11/PostGIS-2.5.9-EOL/ PostGIS 2.5.9 Released]</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 3.0
| 2019-10-20
| {{Version |co |3.0.9|style=text-align:center}}
| 2023-05-29<ref name="2023-05-29">{{cite web|url=https://postgis.net/2023/05/PostGIS-3.3.3-3.2.5-3.1.9-3.0.9-Patch-Releases//|title=PostGIS 3.3.3, 3.2.5, 3.1.9, 3.0.9 Patch Releases}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 3.1
| 2020-12-18
| {{Version |co|3.1.9 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2023-05-29<ref name="2023-05-29">{{cite web|url=https://postgis.net/2023/05/PostGIS-3.3.3-3.2.5-3.1.9-3.0.9-Patch-Releases//|title=PostGIS 3.3.3, 3.2.5, 3.1.9, 3.0.9 Patch Releases}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 3.2
| 2021-12-18
| {{Version |co|3.2.5 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2023-05-29<ref name="2023-05-29">{{cite web|url=https://postgis.net/2023/05/PostGIS-3.3.3-3.2.5-3.1.9-3.0.9-Patch-Releases//|title=PostGIS 3.3.3, 3.2.5, 3.1.9, 3.0.9 Patch Releases}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 3.3
| 2023-05-29
| {{Version |co|3.3.4 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2023-07-28<ref name="2023-07-28">{{cite web|url=https://postgis.net/2023/07/PostGIS-3.3.4-Patch-Release/|title=PostGIS 3.3.4 Patch Release}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 3.4
| 2023-08-15
| {{Version |co|3.4.3 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2024-09-04<ref name="2024-09-04">{{cite web|url=https://postgis.net/2024/09/PostGIS-3.4.3/|title=PostGIS 3.4.3}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | 3.5
| 2025-01-18
| {{Version |c|3.5.2 |style=text-align:center}}
| 2025-01-18<ref name="2025-01-18">{{cite web|url=https://postgis.net/2025/01/PostGIS-3.5.2/|title=PostGIS 3.5.2}}</ref>
|}
{{Version |l |show=111111}}

==Users==
Many software products can use PostGIS as a database backend, including:
* [[ArcGIS]] (via GISquirrel, ST-Links SpatialKit, ZigGIS, ArcSDE and other third-party connectors)
* [[Cadcorp]] SIS
* [[Carto (company)|Carto]]
* [[CockroachDB]]
* [[GeoMedia]] (via third-party connectors)
* [[GeoServer]] (GPL)
* [[GeoNetwork opensource|GeoNetwork]] (GPL)
* [[GRASS GIS]] (GPL)
* [[gvSIG]] (GPL)
* [[Kosmo (GIS)|Kosmo]] (GPL)
* [[Manifold System]]
* [[MapInfo Professional]]
* [[Mapnik]] (LGPL)
* [[MapServer]] ([[BSD Licenses|BSD]])
* [[Maptitude]]
* [[MapGuide]] ([[LGPL]])
* [[OpenJUMP]] (GPL)
* [[OpenStreetMap]]
* [[QGIS]] (GPL)
* [[SAGA GIS]] (GPL)
* [[TerraLib]] (LGPL)
* [[TerraView]] (GPL)
* [[uDig]] (LGPL)

== See also ==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
* [[Well-known text]] and binary, descriptions of geospatial objects used within PostGIS
* [[DE-9IM]], the Dimensionally Extended nine-Intersection Model used by PostGIS

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official website}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Postgis}}
[[Category:Free GIS software]]
[[Category:PostgreSQL]]
[[Category:Spatial database management systems]]