Michael and all, my appologies. It was a typo. The method is geo_distance(point, point) I copied this from psql mingle=# \df+ geo_distance List of functions Schema | Name | Result data type | Argument data types | Owner | Lan guage | Source code | Description --------+--------------+------------------+---------------------+----------+---- ------+--------------+------------- public | geo_distance | double precision | point, point | postgres | c | geo_distance | (1 row) additionally I got this from pg_admin CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION geo_distance(point, point) RETURNS float8 AS '$libdir/earthdistance', 'geo_distance' LANGUAGE 'c' IMMUTABLE STRICT; ALTER FUNCTION geo_distance(point, point) OWNER TO postgres; I dont mind using any other distance method, but I cannot seem to find any in my db (I presume I do not have postgis installed). How would I go about installing (debian apt) and adding it to my current db. Much thanks in advance. -assad On 1/11/06, Michael Fuhr <mike@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 11, 2006 at 02:40:04PM -0700, Assad Jarrahian wrote: > > I was running postgres 8.1 on a windows xp box and I recall > > installing it with postgis option. > > I had a method in a db there that called geodistance. Everything worked fine. > > Neither PostgreSQL nor PostGIS have a geodistance function, at least > not in recent versions. However, PostGIS does have distance, > distance_sphere, and distance_spheroid functions. > > > Now I tried to restore the db on the debian server thats running 8.1 > > as well. The geodistance function (or any other geometry function ) is > > not available. > > Googling for "geodistance" returns a few hundred hits, but googling > for "postgresql geodistance" or "postgis geodistance" yields only > a few hits. The following message to pgsql-hackers from over five > years ago is the only hit I found in the PostgreSQL or PostGIS > mailing lists: > > http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2000-11/msg01232.php > > I'd guess geodistance is or was part of some add-on. If you connect > to the XP box with psql, what does "\df+ geodistance" show? If > it's an SQL or PL/pgSQL function then you could copy its source > into the new database with CREATE FUNCTION, but maybe you'd be > better off using one of the standard functions. > > What, if anything, does geodistance do that the standard PostGIS > distance functions don't? > > -- > Michael Fuhr >