Background info about a related datatype:
With Esri's SDE.ST_GEOMETRY spatial type (object type), there are four different states that a row can be in:
- Has shape and geometry. Normal point/line/polygon with vertices; visible in the map.
- Has shape and geometry, but geometry is NIL/zero-vertex.
- Has shape, but geometry is null.
- The shape field is completely null.
That makes selecting blank shapes tricky:
where
(sde.st_isempty(shape) = 1
or shape is null)
SDE.ST_GEOMETRY: Select features that have blank shapes
Questions about SDO_GEOMETRY:
- Does SDO_GEOMETRY have the same quirks?
- What's the best way to select blank SDO_GEOMETRIES (rows that have no vertices)?
- Is there a single function that can be used to select blank SDO_GEOMETRIES (rows that have no vertices)?