MySQL Bugs: #5039: unable to get distance function in 4.1 beta to work

Bug #5039	unable to get distance function in 4.1 beta to work
Submitted:	13 Aug 2004 21:46	Modified:	13 Dec 2007 15:36
Reporter:	David Robertus	Email Updates:
Status:	Not a Bug	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server	Severity:	S4 (Feature request)
Version:	4.1.4	OS:	Any
Assigned to:	Alexey Botchkov	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
I have a single table and I am trying to retrieve the distance between two geometries in the table using the following syntax:

SELECT distance(b.geom, b2.geom) as dist
FROM small_geo.boundaries b, small_geo.boundaries b2
WHERE b.id = 1 and b2.id = 2

The returned error message is:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '(b.geom, b2.geom) as dist
FROM small_geo.boundaries b, small_geo.boundaries b2
' at line 1

I have tried several other approaches to using this function so far without success.  Can I get a pointer on the usage of the function, please?

How to repeat:
Create a table with two columns: and ID and a geometry column.  Insert two geometries with distinct IDs that are spatially separate from one another (I just have two simple boxes).  Try to use the distance function in SQL context to determine the minimum distance between the geometries.

Suggested fix:
The above usage of the distance function is fairly standard among other spatially enabled databases and I believe that it is being used in the ASNI-compliant format.  If there is another way that this function should be called I have not been able to get it to work.

Verified against 4.1.4; function does not appear to exist.

As documented, Distance() is not yet implemented.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/
Functions_that_test_spatial_relationships_between_geometries.html