Thread: Are there any major benefits to using point and not real data type
I am using postgres 9.4 and am new to this but I have 2 columns right now latitudes & longitudes. I have them saved as a real column so they take up 4 bits each 8 altogether. I see that point is used for latitudes and longitudes but it is a whopping 16 bits are there any benefits (Performance) of using point over real datatype for coordinates? I plan on using indexes on the column and do receive a lot of inserts . -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.nabble.com/Are-there-any-major-benefits-to-using-point-and-not-real-data-type-tp5870626.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
On 10/19/2015 11:33 AM, romeo407 wrote: > I am using postgres 9.4 and am new to this but I have 2 columns right now > latitudes & longitudes. I have them saved as a real column so they take up 4 > bits each 8 altogether. I see that point is used for latitudes and > longitudes but it is a whopping 16 bits are there any benefits (Performance) > of using point over real datatype for coordinates? I plan on using indexes > on the column and do receive a lot of inserts . 32bit REAL values of latitude and longitude are not very precise, maybe 4 arcseconds of latitude and 30 arcseconds of longitude... thats on the order of up to nearly a km of error. -- john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz