Well known binary
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Overview
| Full name | Well known binary (WKB), defined in ISO/IEC 13249-3:2016, Information technology - Database language - SQL multimedia and application packages Part 3: Spatial |
| Version | Edition 4 |
| Amendments | None |
| Corrigenda | None |
| Published by | ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32, Data management and interchange |
| Languages | English |
| Online overview | https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso-iec:13249:-3:ed-5:v1:en |
| Type of standard | ISO International Standard
Application level |
| Application | WKB is defined in ISO/IEC 13249-3:2011. WKB is a hexadecimal encoding that can be used to define geometry. Geometries are expressed as a stream of bytes that is not human readable. The type of geometry is specified followed by the coordinates of the nodes. |
| Implementation benefits | In ISO 19125-2:2004 Geographic information - Simple feature access - Part 2: SQL option, WKB is an option of describing geometries. This is an optimal format for databases, since the geometry is expressed as a stream of bytes and can easily be exchanged. However, the encoding does not support any analysis, such as measurements. |