When creating a topology the geometry field cannot contain a Z coordinate.
OK but the Ordnance Survey Open Data highways layers containse a Z coordinate. Previously I had stripped this out using the latest version of QGIS which has a tick box in the front end that allows for import stripping of the z coordinate in the process. If you don’t have access to the latest QGIS version how can you strip out the z coordinates.
ST_FORCE2D
ALTER TABLE public.nuroadlink ADD COLUMN geom2(multilinestring,27700);
UPDATE public.nuroadlink SET geom2 = ST_FORCE2D(public.nuroadlink.geom);
ALTER TABLE public.nuroadlink drop column geom;
ALTER TABLE public.nuroadlink RENAME COLUMN geom2 TO geom;
I had assumed after I had created a working SQL Script I would just be able to wrap the whole thing easily into a function and then bang it would be off to the races.
My script really needed to be run in order and for some as yet undefined reason I was getting particular errors where a table would be created and then a following query would add or alter that table. It looked like the second query was trying to adapt the table prior to its creation with an inevitable error.
I managed to get it working by making each SQL Query a function and then scripting the functions consecutively in a separate function using the PERFORM instruction.
I incorporate into this the check_function_bodies switch which just allows the creation of sql referring to objects that may not be in existence yet.
BEGIN;
SET LOCAL check_function_bodies TO FALSE;
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION query01() returns void as $$
CREATE TABLE t001start
(
pkid serial primary key,
geompkidt001 geometry(point,27700)
);
$$ LANGUAGE SQL;
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION query02() returns void as $$
CREATE TABLE t002end
(
pkid serial primary key,
geompkidt002 geometry(point,27700)
);
$$ LANGUAGE SQL;
COMMIT;
And then subsequently I create a function that runs the functions.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION runallthequeries()
returns text as
$BODY$
BEGIN
PERFORM query01();
PERFORM query02();
RETURN 'process end';
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Now lets go to QGIS connect to the PostGIS instance add the tables and create some test data manually.
Here I have added fields in green with bold number labels and plots in brown with smaller number labelling. The numbers represent the pkid fields.
Now here I can quickly run a query to identify the plots that are in fields
SELECT t00002plots.pkid
FROM
t00002plots,
t00001fields
WHERE
ST_WITHIN(PUBLIC.T00002PLOTS.GEOM, PUBLIC.T00001FIELDS.GEOM);
And it correctly identifies that plot 1 is within the fields layer.
But what would be great in an application is to have some kind of junction table that individual master records could display their children on. For this we need a junction table that links between the field and plots table showing the pkids from each.
SELECT t00002plots.pkid as Plotspkid,t00001fields.pkid as Fieldspkid
FROM
t00002plots,
t00001fields
WHERE
ST_WITHIN(PUBLIC.T00002PLOTS.GEOM, PUBLIC.T00001FIELDS.GEOM);
Now I will move plot 2 into field 3 and rerun the above.
The layer now looks like
and running the former query we get.
Now its possible to either create a junction table to hold this information..
eg
CREATE TABLE t00010fieldplotjunction AS
SELECT t00002plots.pkid as Plotspkid,t00001fields.pkid as Fieldspkid
FROM
t00002plots,
t00001fields
WHERE
ST_WITHIN(PUBLIC.T00002PLOTS.GEOM, PUBLIC.T00001FIELDS.GEOM);
or we can create a view that will constantly calculate this everytime it is seen
CREATE VIEW v001FieldPlotJunction AS
SELECT t00002plots.pkid as Plotspkid,t00001fields.pkid as Fieldspkid
FROM
t00002plots,
t00001fields
WHERE
ST_WITHIN(PUBLIC.T00002PLOTS.GEOM, PUBLIC.T00001FIELDS.GEOM);
Now if I add a few more plots and fields and then pull up the view we shall see that everything has been adjusted
and running the view we now get
In some circumstances this calculation may be expensive so we may wish to run and create a junction table overnight other times we may be happy to do it fully dynamically. Of course in a front end you could query and filter such that only one record was compared against the fields plot at anytime. Very useful nonetheless.
I wanted to be able to run thousands of queries or hundreds from Postgres like I can in MS Access this didn’t turn out to be too difficult.
Here’s something that works firstly lets create a new database
CREATE DATABASE sqlloopdb;
You will then need to connect to the database.
Next I will create 2 tables with; One table to be called t001sqltarget – this is the table we shall change with queries. One table called t002sqlrun – this will contain queries that we will run.
Please note the field names are important as well but I will let you study them in the code.
I then have 4 inserts that place valid SQL strings into the field sqltorun.
CREATE TABLE t001sqltarget (pkid serial primary key, fieldforupdate varchar(1));
CREATE TABLE t002sqlrun (pkid serial primary key, sqltorun varchar(1000));
INSERT INTO t002sqlrun(sqltorun) values ('INSERT INTO t001sqltarget(fieldforupdate) values (1);');
INSERT INTO t002sqlrun(sqltorun) values ('INSERT INTO t001sqltarget(fieldforupdate) values (2);');
INSERT INTO t002sqlrun(sqltorun) values ('INSERT INTO t001sqltarget(fieldforupdate) values (3);');
INSERT INTO t002sqlrun(sqltorun) values ('INSERT INTO t001sqltarget(fieldforupdate) values (4);');
First lets run the above and see what we have. Below you can see that I create the database then connect to it before opening the editor from which I run the above code I then take a look at the tables in the database and run a select to return all the records within the t001sqltarget table of which there are none.
Now lets run the following code and then take a look at t001sqltarget.
DO
LANGUAGE plpgsql
$$
DECLARE
stmt text;
BEGIN
FOR stmt IN
SELECT sqltorun FROM t002sqlrun
LOOP
EXECUTE stmt;
END LOOP;
END;
$$;
And after running there are 4 lines in the table
Every time I run the Do code four more records will be added to this table. Any SQL could be included in t002sqlrun and this is a nice demonstration of what I had previously able to do in MS Access and is massively powerful. It could be used for instance to calculate multiple measurements.
Objective here is to write a series of queries that can be used to measure the shortest distance between selected paired locations on a network such that the geometry of the routes can be calculated and displayed on a map.
For this particular tutorial you will need – QGIS 3 or higher and a version of Postgres I am using version 11.0 here (I have upgraded since my former posts). I believe this tutorial will work with previous versions but if you are following along now might be a good time to upgrade.
QGIS 3.4 or higher – needed as the Ordnance Survey road network geometry contains a z coordinate which will prevent the creation of the required geometry for measurement. QGIS 3 introduced the ability to save geometry excluding z coordinate. If you have a network without z coordinates you should not require this.
So let us first get the data. Here you tick the option in the top right hand corner – scroll to the bottom and submit your request after which you will be asked a few basic questions along with email address you wish the download to be sent to after a few minutes you should be sent the download link through your email – follow the instructions and you should be able to get the information
The information you are downloading is a block framework for the whole of the uk. When you unzip the download into a folder you will see multiple files. We will be using a section of the national dataset relating to Edinburgh – NT. Choose the block or selection that you are interested in. More blocks may take more time however.
Open QGIS Create a new project : eg EdinburghRouting.qgz Load in your chosen network block : eg NT_RoadLink.shp
Select the layer you just loaded in : eg NT_RoadLink.shp
and navigate to the following in the menu settings Layer / Save As
Fill out the Save Vector Layer as … dialog box IMPORTANT – ensure within the Geometry section Geometry type is set to LineString Include z-dimension is unticked
Give the new file a name : eg ntosroutingnetwork.shp
Hit ok
Within the layer dialog of QGIS your new layer should appear you can now remove the for NT_RoadLink shape file from the project
Next go to your version of PostgreSQL and using a superuser account create a new database : eg edinburghrouting
I would suggest you use lower casing as well
As a superuser ensure you add the postgis and pgrouting extensions.
Next I set up the following connection between the QGIS project and PostgreSQL
Personal tastes may vary but I like like to select Also list tables with no geometry Allow saving/loading QGIS projects in the database
OK the selection and you should now have a connection to the new database you just created.
QGIS has an excellent dbmanager window which we will use to load our new shape file which excludes the z layer into the new database we created in PostgreSQL
Ensuring that you have a connection to your localpostgis database hit the
ImportLayerFile
Here I load the information into a new table t01roadnetwork
On pressing OK there will be delay after which if things go well you will receive the following message.
As ever it is good to check that things appear to be going well. Add the layer to your project and determine approximately whether import was successful.
Next back in psql command line and in an editor we are going to run 4 queries The first 2 add columns that are required in the shortest distance algorithm we shall use, the third will allow anyone to write an aggregation function to see the total cost of the route and the last creates a topology for the road network.
alter table public.t01roadnetwork add column source integer;
alter table public.t01roadnetwork add column target integer;
alter table public.t01roadnetwork add column agg smallint default 1;
select pgr_createTopology('public.t01roadnetwork', 0.0001, 'geom', 'id');
If things go correctly you should see the database engine start to create the topology and what I see is it gradually stepping through the creation process.
and on completion you should have something like the following:
A new table has been added to the edinburghrouting database and next step is to display the network and its vertices. In QGIS.
In QGIS we should see something like
The next thing that I like to do is to label the nodes so that for quick identification.
And look to the t01roadnetwork table and see if the columns are clear and present.
We are now ready to make a measurement. Here I choose the nodes 15883 and 10967
SELECT seq, id1 AS node, id2 AS edge, cost, geom , agg
FROM pgr_dijkstra(
'SELECT id, source, target, st_length(geom) as cost FROM public.t01roadnetwork',
15883, 10967, false, false
) as di
JOIN public.t01roadnetwork pt
ON di.id2 = pt.id ;
Now we can load this as a new layer and then improve the symbology
Doing this we get.
It should be noted that the line you see is a collection of lines. In my next post I will go through and indicate how we can amalgamate that into a single line for storage in a table.
Congratulations if you have got this far you should be able to measure the shortest distance between any two points on a valid network by altering the numbers.
Note: As of PostgreSQL 9.1, most procedural languages have been made into “extensions”, and should therefore be installed with CREATE EXTENSION not CREATE LANGUAGE. Direct use of CREATE LANGUAGE should now be confined to extension installation scripts. If you have a “bare” language in your database, perhaps as a result of an upgrade, you can convert it to an extension using CREATE EXTENSION langname FROM unpackage
As per the nature of recursion a function is a variable is a function.
Previously in 005 and 006 we wrote functions that returned subsets of queries they were effectively dynamic queries where I entered a parameter that was used in a select query. This effectively meant that although the function was returning a variable this was a query of a select statement.
What if we wish just to return a single value as in say translate centigrade to fahrenheit or some other calcuation.
In such case you simply state the function should return a variable and you state the variable type.
eg
CREATE FUNCTION add(integer,integer) RETURNS integer
AS 'SELECT $1 + $2;'
LANGUAGE SQL
IMMUTABLE
RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT;
There are a few interesting things here which should be born in mind
In this case the addition is performed in SQL
I have to specifically name the language of the calculation (SQL) which suggests that if you stated another language it might accept it!
You still need to select the function to run it. This indicates that postgres 9.5 doesn’t executve functions as per some environments (ms access for example) – I have read that version 11 changed this and allows you to execute or perform a function. Ms Access you don’t even need to write execute simply the name of the function with the integers.
Variables are refererred to as to their input position unlike VBA where you dimension the variable and give it a name. I am unclear at the moment the advantages of the former or later but it is interesting nonetheless. I first came across something similar with autohotkey.
In 005 when last we left our intrepid explorers we were wondering if having defined an inline table that contains the definition of the selection purely in the user defined function how do we see what that selection is as it might not be a presently defined object. SetOF references an object we can execute independently of the function Table() – does not.
Well apparently magically you can run the following.
Like all platforms it is possible to create bespoke functions in Postgres
For the following I assume;
1. Postgres 9.5 is installed with the server running (syntax should be the same for other versions)
2. A database called exampledb has been created
3. In this database there exists table called t001landparcels with some records and a field called PKID
4. You are logged into the exampledb with a username called general that has been granted CREATEDB role.
5. You are in psql
The following can be used to create a simple function
CREATE FUNCTION getrecords(int) RETURNS SETOF t001landparcels AS $$
SELECT * FROM t001landparcels WHERE pkid <= $1;
$$ LANGUAGE SQL;
If you have been careful and done this exactly the same with my initial assumptions it should return
CREATE FUNCTION
This tells us that the functioned has been created this will now exist in the schema the table is as a permanent addition.
We can identify the function by either listing all the functions and scrolling through
\df public.*
or listing the individual function
\df public.getrecords
This should return your newly created function
Now to run the function – unlike MS Access you can’t simply run the function you need to allocate it to a select statement.
SELECT * FROM getrecords(2);
This should return everything you are looking for.
Now you should be able to drop the function using the following SQL
DROP FUNCTION getrecords(int);
Note how you have to define the function with its parameter I have read (no idea whether its true) that in version 10 of postgress you can simply use
DROP FUNCTION getrecords;
Writing code in psql does require accuracy so getting things to work does usually involve some experimentation. I have removed much of this from my screenshots!
An alternative is as follows
CREATE FUNCTION getrecords(int) RETURNS TABLE (pkid integer, parcelname text) as $$
SELECT pkid, parcelname FROM t001landparcels WHERE pkid <=$1;
$$ Language SQL;
This appears to result in the same answer I am not clear what the difference is yet – note the result would have been the same if I had defined the table with the additon of a geometry column.
Note I dropped the old getrecords function before I created this one. Not sure what would have happened if I had tried to create one over the other.
I found this second method in stackoverflow when investigating functions with the following to me slightly mysterious quote
This is effectively the same as using SETOF tablename, but declares the table structure inline instead of referencing an existing object, so joins and such will still work.
Which sounds to me as important but I’m struggling at present to understand its meaning!
I will investigate later but what I think he is talking about is that you don’t need to have a defined object before hand eg in setof this is SETOF t001landparcels
I quite often like to have things broken down rather than all in functions and it might prefer to have it as a setof something that I can more clearly see.
Which leads me to my next question how do you get the definition of a function see 006
For this you will need to have a version of Postgres Database engine installed and running and you will need to have created a database which has the PostGis extension installed.
Open psql
Login to the database you wish to create the table in
Here I do this and then check on the tables with the \dt command before inspecting the columns itself using the \d command.
and here I open up QGIS and link to my local postgres instance and the exampledb database;
and here I connect to it and draw a polygon. If you are wondering where it is this is InchKeith in the Firth of Forth and island very visible from George Street in Edinburgh. If you have flown into Edinburgh you will have flown almost over it.
and here after having digitised a single polygon I look at the contents of the table
SELECT count(*) FROM t001landparcels;
Produces the more helpful count of records in the table.
So you have an existing database in PostGres that you wish to add the PostGIS extension to.
You will need to be logged in with a username that has superuser privileges.
Here let me do this using the postgres default account that on my instance has superuser access.
Here rather than logging in at the start I am choosing to change the connection to a different database
This is done by using
\c DatabaseName;
or
\connect DatabaseName;
Please note that the semicolon is vital in performing the instruction.
The way I have discovered to do this is by opening the database and then allocating the postgis extension to the database once it is open.
Let us first examine the tables in our blank database before the extension is enabled.
\dt
Now let us enable the extension.
CREATE EXTENSION postgis;
Let us now examine the database tables
\dt
Enabling the PostGIS extension adds this table along with the ability to add geometry types of varaibles within tables.
I am just getting into PostGres and here are some rough notes for my reference.
Assuming you have a postgres admin account you want to sign in first of all and create a database
To find the command line go to search in Windows and type psql
Ensure that your postgres engine is running firstly
You should be presented with the following
There are default connections to the local host keep hitting these initially until you reach the following;
You will now need to know your password enter it here and press return
I will deal with the warning message further in the post – but a lot of people experience this message so I wanted to keep it in at present.
From my initial investigations as ever it is a good idea to restrict users to particular privileges at this level I am not being particularly refined – I would like to have a poweruser role that I can allocate to people and give this a defined password.
Signing in you can check out the roles and users as follows – on starting up a new instance you may well see something like this \du
So here I try and set up a user called general and create a role called general which I give create DB rights
I would recommend something stronger than the classic password password.
Issuing the \du command again we get to see the roles
Now we can close down and go back in but this time login as username general by altering the appropriate item when asked.
Note how the =# characters have been replaced by => this appears to denote the non superuser sign in.
To identify what username you are logged in as type \c at the prompt
My investigations suggest that the # sign denotes that you are logged into the database as superuser.
So first of all lets get rid of that annoying warning message when you log in at psql
I am running Postgres version 9.5 your version may vary but you can remove the warning by editing runpsql.bat file every version of postgres has this file and it will be located in the version equivalent directory to 9.5 for me.
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\scripts
Add the line
cmd.exe /c chcp 1252
as per underline and save the file
Now fire up psql as usual you should get the following
It should be noted that if you REM out the SET statements you can choose login with particular server / localhost / database / port and username presets which may be useful if you find yourself constantly going into a particular database as a particular user.
Here you see that the warning note has stopped.
It should be noted that using the general username you will NOT be able to create Databases
In order to CREATE databases you will have to be signed in with a username with sufficient privileges here I am in as postgres and I create a database called ExampleDB
You can see that on carrying out a successful command we usually see a repeat of the command.
To get a list of all databases in the instance type
\l
It can be seen that despite typing the name in capitals the database has been created in lower case this seems to be a feature of commandline. If you desperately want capitals you may need to go to pgadmin tool.
As I have indicated before MS Access makes a brilliant ETL tool. Important in this is being able to connect to different databases. I have set out how to connect to MySQL and SQLAzure before – the following sets out how to connect to PostGres.
To follow along you will either need PostGres installed on your local computer or alternatively all required connection parameters to a database in the cloud or on your lan. PostGres Download
You will also need to Download and install a PostGreSQL ODBC driver – these are available at the following(March 2018).
Scroll down the list – here I went to the bottom and obtained x64 version – MSI are downloaded (Microsoft Windows Installer files) – Install and then move to the next step.
Next create a blank database and right click in the white area to reveal a menu – select link tables.
You should now be presented with the Select Data Source dialog. Here I hit New…
This brings up the Create New Data Source dialog which lists database drivers scroll down through the list to PostgreSQL Unicode and select
Give your DSN an appropriate name and then go back to link table but this time rather than hitting the new button navigate to where you saved your DSN and select it and press OK.
The ever important parameters – you just need to know these – if you set up PostGres and you can get in through PG Admin selecting properties on the database should reveal the panel that will give you some guidelines. You may wish to double click on the image below so you can get a closer link of how I place my parameters in. I have opened the PGAdmin dialog here and placed it alongside the MS Access database window to show the properties I am transferring across.
Hitting OK should present you with the tables in your database.
And here is a demonstration with the link in place along with the table open and a simple form shown.
The following uses
QGIS 2.14.2 Essen and
PostGres 9.5
A number of local authorities have released information through the UK’s data government site. The following example uses a shape file obtained from Lichfield District Council – At 2nd of October 2016 this was available for download from the following link
Lichfield Planning Applications
Open up QGIS and add Lichfield’s planning application shape file
Now scan along the top menu and go to Database
Select the sub menu DB Manager and then DB Manager
The following windows dialog should appear
Expand the area on the left named PostGIS – any PostGIS instances that you have created should be visisble here. Note you will have to have the PostGIS server running. Then highlight the actual instance that would like to import information into.
In this case I use the instance LocalPostGres
Choose the third icon from the left.
It should be noted that the window on the right may or may not show the correct connection to the database on the right.
Name the table you wish to create and then hit OK – additional parameters are available.
There will be a delay before a confirmation of successful import happens – try to not issue commands during this time – once confirmation has been received go back into the PostGIS option and add the layer.
First ensure that you have both Postgres and QGIS installed on your machine.
In order for you to be able to connect to Postgres from QGIS on local host you must ensure 2 things. Firstly that the PostGIS plugin has been installed on your laptop AND secondly that you have included the postgis extension in each database that you wish to connect to. Without enabling the extension in the database you won’t be able to connect OR import shape files. Installation of PostGIS is often a default during the install of postgres but you can check whether this was completed correctly by using the Application Stack Builder, a small program that is installed with later versions of postgres.
I navigated to this on the win 8.1 machine I was using by using search.
Opening application stack builder you will be presented with the following.
Expand the spatial extensions tree to identify if you already have the PostGIS plugin installed – if not – select as appropriate the plugin and you will be prompted to install. You will need an internet connection for this. Above you can see that my plugin was already installed.
Next you need to add the PostGIS extension to each Postgres database you wish to link to from QGIS this is done through PG Admin.
This is something that both myself and a colleague got caught out by and it took me an hour of searching to find how to fix it.
Below I have a database called GISData which I have just created. You will note there is only one object within the expanded extensions tree. You will not be able to connect to a database that does not include PostGIS in its list of extensions
Hi-light the database you want to spatially enable then go to Tools – Query Tool( Ctrl + E will do the same). In the above picture I’ve slightly jumped the gun. To add the extension to the database type.
CREATE EXTENSION postgis
Run the query by selecting the green right arrow
There will be a short delay and then upon refresh of the connection postgis should appear in the list of extensions.
You can now close the Postgres administrator and return to QGIS where you should be able to setup the connection to the database.
Parameters should be similar to below and it is useful to test the connection prior to saving.
