Connectors > MySQL

MySQL uses the ST Geometry format with following distinct types:

•geometry

•point

•linestring

•polygon

•multipoint

•multilinestring

•multipolygon

•geometrycollection

All types are functionally equivalent, the only distinction is what ST subtype each allows. While geometry allows any ST subtype to be stored, the others only allow the homonym subtype (i.e. only LINESTRING geometries are allowed in a linestring column or variable).

Geometry Types

Here is how MySQL (ST) geometry subtypes map to GeoJson geometry types.

ST Subtype / MySQL Type	Interpretation	GeoJson Geometry Type
POINT / point or geometry	Single point	Point
MULTIPOINT / multipoint or geometry	Multiple points	MultiPoint
LINESTRING / linestring or geometry	Sequence of straight lines without gaps	LineString
CIRCULARSTRING / geometry	Sequence of circle arcs without gaps	LineString + DTS corrections
MULTILINESTRING / multilinestring or geometry	Multiple LINESTRINGs (not necessarily connected)	MultiLineString
COMPOUNDCURVE / geometry	Sequence of connected LINESTRINGs and CIRCULARLINESTRINGs	MultiLineString + DTS corrections
POLYGON / polygon or geometry	Polygon (with or without holes)	Polygon
CURVEPOLYGON / geometry	Polygon whose boundaries can contain circle arcs	Polygon + DTS corrections
MULTIPOLYGON / mulipolygon or geometry	Multiple POLYGONs	MultiPolygon (+ DTS corrections)
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION / geometrycollection or geometry	Collection of any of the above	GeometryCollection (+ DTS corrections)

Z and M modifiers (e.g. POINT Z) are supported for all geometry types (except GEOMETRYCOLLECTION where they are not applicable), but the M values are always ignored and processing geometries with Z values has certain limitations.