Adrian - Thanks for the reply. The example was from http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/tutorial-populate.html with the example of: INSERT INTO cities VALUES ('San Francisco', '(-194.0, 53.0)'); That is not a valid coordinate but it is clear that they are trying to declare it as longitude (-194) for x and latitude (53) for y. Yes, I would understand that it is up to other GIS clients to interpret those values as coordinates but they would need to know which value is which (lat or long). In the case above it would be easy to identify any value over 90 as being a longitude value but what if the values were listed as 10,40. That would represent two completely different points on the map if it were interpreted as lat/long compared to long/lat. This is why I was asking the question. -- View this message in context: http://postgresql.1045698.n5.nabble.com/Format-of-Pioint-datatype-lat-long-or-long-lat-tp5784939p5784953.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general