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The SQLite R*Tree Module
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Table Of Contents
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<div id="toc_sub"><div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#overview">1. Overview</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#compiling_the_r_tree_module">2. Compiling The R*Tree Module</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#using_the_r_tree_module">3. Using the R*Tree Module</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#creating_an_r_tree_index">3.1. Creating An R*Tree Index</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc3"><a href="#column_naming_details">3.1.1. Column naming details</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#populating_an_r_tree_index">3.2. Populating An R*Tree Index</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#querying_an_r_tree_index">3.3. Querying An R*Tree Index</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#roundoff_error">3.4. Roundoff Error</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#reading_and_writing_at_the_same_time">3.5. Reading And Writing At The Same Time</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#using_r_trees_effectively">4. Using R*Trees Effectively</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#auxiliary_columns">4.1. Auxiliary Columns</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc3"><a href="#limitations">4.1.1. Limitations</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#integer_valued_r_trees">5. Integer-Valued R-Trees</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#custom_r_tree_queries">6. Custom R-Tree Queries</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#the_legacy_xgeom_callback">6.1. The Legacy xGeom Callback</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#the_new_xqueryfunc_callback">6.2. The New xQueryFunc Callback</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#additional_considerations_for_custom_queries">6.3. Additional Considerations for Custom Queries</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc1"><a href="#implementation_details">7. Implementation Details</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#shadow_tables">7.1. Shadow Tables</a></div>
<div class="fancy-toc2"><a href="#integrity_check_using_the_rtreecheck_sql_function">7.2. Integrity Check using the rtreecheck() SQL function</a></div>
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<h1 id="overview"><span>1. </span>Overview</h1>
<p>
An <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-tree">R-Tree</a> is a special
index that is designed for doing range queries. R-Trees are most commonly
used in geospatial systems where each entry is a rectangle with minimum and
maximum X and Y coordinates. Given a query rectangle, an R-Tree is able
to quickly find all entries that are contained within the query rectangle
or which overlap the query rectangle. This idea is easily extended to
three dimensions for use in CAD systems. R-Trees also find use in time-domain
range look-ups. For example, suppose a database records the starting and
ending times for a large number of events. A R-Tree is able to quickly
find all events that were active at any time during a given
time interval, or all events that started during a particular time interval,
or all events that both started and ended within a given time interval.
And so forth.
</p>
<p>
The R-Tree concept originated with
<a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_1151">Toni Guttman</a>:
<em>R-Trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial Searching</em>,
Proc. 1984 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data,
pp. 47-57.
The implementation found in SQLite is a refinement of Guttman's original
idea, commonly called "R*Trees", that was described by
Norbert Beckmann, Hans-Peter Kriegel, Ralf Schneider, Bernhard Seeger:
<em>The R*-Tree: An Efficient and Robust Access Method for Points
and Rectangles.</em> SIGMOD Conference 1990: 322-331.
</p>
<h1 id="compiling_the_r_tree_module"><span>2. </span>Compiling The R*Tree Module</h1>
<p>
The source code to the SQLite R*Tree module is included as part
of the <a href="amalgamation.html">amalgamation</a>. However, depending on configuration options
and the particular version of SQLite you are using, it may or may not
be enabled by default. To ensure that the R*Tree module is enabled,
simply compile with the <a href="compile.html#enable_rtree">SQLITE_ENABLE_RTREE</a>
C-preprocessor macro defined. With many compilers, this is accomplished
by adding the option "-DSQLITE_ENABLE_RTREE=1" to the compiler
command-line.
</p>
<h1 id="using_the_r_tree_module"><span>3. </span>Using the R*Tree Module</h1>
<p>
The SQLite R*Tree module is implemented as a
<a href="c3ref/create_module.html">virtual table</a>. Each R*Tree index is a
virtual table with an odd number of columns between 3 and 11.
The first column is always a 64-bit signed integer primary key.
The other columns are pairs, one pair per dimension, containing the
minimum and maximum values for that dimension, respectively.
A 1-dimensional R*Tree thus has 3 columns.
A 2-dimensional R*Tree has 5 columns.
A 3-dimensional R*Tree has 7 columns.
A 4-dimensional R*Tree has 9 columns.
And a 5-dimensional R*Tree has 11 columns. The SQLite R*Tree implementation
does not support R*Trees wider than 5 dimensions.
</p>
<p>
The first column of an SQLite R*Tree is similar to an integer primary
key column of a normal SQLite table. It may only store a 64-bit signed
integer value. Inserting a NULL value into this column causes SQLite
to automatically generate a new unique primary key value. If an attempt
is made to insert any other non-integer value into this column,
the r-tree module silently converts it to an integer before writing it
into the database.
</p><p>
The min/max-value pair columns are stored as 32-bit floating point values for
"rtree" virtual tables or as 32-bit signed integers in "rtree_i32" virtual
tables. Unlike regular SQLite tables which can store data in a variety of
datatypes and formats, the R*Tree rigidly enforce these storage types.
If any other type of value is inserted into such a column, the r-tree
module silently converts it to the required type before writing the
new record to the database.
</p><h2 id="creating_an_r_tree_index"><span>3.1. </span>Creating An R*Tree Index</h2>
<p>
A new R*Tree index is created as follows:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE <em>&lt;name&gt;</em> USING rtree(<em>&lt;column-names&gt;</em>);
</pre></div>
<p>
The <em>&lt;name&gt;</em> is the name your application chooses for the
R*Tree index and <em>&lt;column-names&gt;</em> is a comma separated list
of between 3 and 11 columns.
The virtual &lt;name&gt; table creates three <a href="vtab.html#xshadowname">shadow tables</a> to actually
store its content. The names of these shadow tables are:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre><em>&lt;name&gt;</em><strong>_node</strong><br>
<em>&lt;name&gt;</em><strong>_rowid</strong><br>
<em>&lt;name&gt;</em><strong>_parent</strong>
</pre></div>
<p>
The shadow tables are ordinary SQLite data tables. You can query them
directly if you like, though this unlikely to reveal anything particularly
useful.
And you can <a href="lang_update.html">UPDATE</a>, <a href="lang_delete.html">DELETE</a>, <a href="lang_insert.html">INSERT</a> or even <a href="lang_droptable.html">DROP</a>
the shadow tables, though doing so will corrupt your R*Tree index.
So it is best to simply ignore the shadow tables. Recognize that they
hold your R*Tree index information and let it go as that.
</p>
<p>
As an example, consider creating a two-dimensional R*Tree index for use in
spatial queries:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE demo_index USING rtree(
id, -- Integer primary key
minX, maxX, -- Minimum and maximum X coordinate
minY, maxY -- Minimum and maximum Y coordinate
);
</pre></div>
<h3 id="column_naming_details"><span>3.1.1. </span>Column naming details</h3>
<p>
In the argments to "rtree" in the CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE statement, the
names of the columns are taken from the first token of each argument.
All subsequent tokens within each argument are silently ignored.
This means, for example, that if you try to give a column a
<a href="datatype3.html#affinity">type affinity</a> or add a constraint such as UNIQUE or NOT NULL or DEFAULT to
a column, those extra tokens are accepted as valid, but they do not change
the behavior of the rtree.
In an RTREE virtual table, the first column always has a
<a href="datatype3.html#affinity">type affinity</a> of INTEGER and all other data columns have a
<a href="datatype3.html#affinity">type affinity</a> of REAL.
In an RTREE_I32 virtual table, all columns have type affinity of INTEGER.
</p><p>
Recommended practice is to omit any extra tokens in the rtree specification.
Let each argument to "rtree" be a single ordinary label that is the name of
the corresponding column, and omit all other tokens from the argument list.
</p><h2 id="populating_an_r_tree_index"><span>3.2. </span>Populating An R*Tree Index</h2>
<p>
The usual <a href="lang_insert.html">INSERT</a>, <a href="lang_update.html">UPDATE</a>, and <a href="lang_delete.html">DELETE</a> commands work on an R*Tree
index just like on regular tables. So to insert some data into our sample
R*Tree index, we can do something like this:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>INSERT INTO demo_index VALUES
(28215, -80.781227, -80.604706, 35.208813, 35.297367),
(28216, -80.957283, -80.840599, 35.235920, 35.367825),
(28217, -80.960869, -80.869431, 35.133682, 35.208233),
(28226, -80.878983, -80.778275, 35.060287, 35.154446),
(28227, -80.745544, -80.555382, 35.130215, 35.236916),
(28244, -80.844208, -80.841988, 35.223728, 35.225471),
(28262, -80.809074, -80.682938, 35.276207, 35.377747),
(28269, -80.851471, -80.735718, 35.272560, 35.407925),
(28270, -80.794983, -80.728966, 35.059872, 35.161823),
(28273, -80.994766, -80.875259, 35.074734, 35.172836),
(28277, -80.876793, -80.767586, 35.001709, 35.101063),
(28278, -81.058029, -80.956375, 35.044701, 35.223812),
(28280, -80.844208, -80.841972, 35.225468, 35.227203),
(28282, -80.846382, -80.844193, 35.223972, 35.225655);
</pre></div>
<p>
The entries above are bounding boxes (longitude and latitude) for 14
zipcodes near Charlotte, NC. A real database would have many thousands,
millions, or billions of such entries, but this small 14-row sample will
be sufficient to illustrate the ideas.
</p>
<h2 id="querying_an_r_tree_index"><span>3.3. </span>Querying An R*Tree Index</h2>
<p>
Any valid query will work against an R*Tree index. The R*Tree
implementation just makes some kinds of queries especially
efficient. Queries against the primary key are efficient:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT * FROM demo_index WHERE id=28269;
</pre></div>
<p>
Of course, an ordinary SQLite table will also do a query against its
integer primary key efficiently, so the previous is not important.
The big reason for using an R*Tree is so that
you can efficiently do range queries against the coordinate
ranges. For example, the main office of the SQLite project is
located at 35.37785, -80.77470.
To find which zipcodes might service that office, one could right:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT id FROM demo_index
WHERE minX&lt;=-80.77470 AND maxX&gt;=-80.77470
AND minY&lt;=35.37785 AND maxY&gt;=35.37785;
</pre></div>
<p>
The query above will quickly locate all zipcodes that contain
the SQLite main office in their bounding box, even if the
R*Tree contains many entries. The previous is an example
of a "contained-within" query. The R*Tree also supports "overlapping"
queries. For example, to find all zipcode bounding boxes that overlap
with the 28269 zipcode:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT A.id FROM demo_index AS A, demo_index AS B
WHERE A.maxX&gt;=B.minX AND A.minX&lt;=B.maxX
AND A.maxY&gt;=B.minY AND A.minY&lt;=B.maxY
AND B.id=28269;
</pre></div>
<p>
This second query will find both 28269 entry (since every bounding box
overlaps with itself) and also other zipcode that is close enough to
28269 that their bounding boxes overlap.
</p>
<p>
Note that it is not necessary for all coordinates in an R*Tree index
to be constrained in order for the index search to be efficient.
One might, for example, want to query all objects that overlap with
the 35th parallel:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT id FROM demo_index
WHERE maxY&gt;=35.0 AND minY&lt;=35.0;
</pre></div>
<p>
But, generally speaking, the more constraints that the R*Tree module
has to work with, and the smaller the bounding box, the faster the
results will come back.
</p>
<h2 id="roundoff_error"><span>3.4. </span>Roundoff Error</h2>
<p>
By default, coordinates are stored in an R*Tree using 32-bit floating
point values. When a coordinate cannot be exactly represented by a
32-bit floating point number, the lower-bound coordinates are rounded down
and the upper-bound coordinates are rounded up. Thus, bounding boxes might
be slightly larger than specified, but will never be any smaller. This
is exactly what is desired for doing the more common "overlapping" queries
where the application wants to find every entry in the R*Tree that overlaps
a query bounding box. Rounding the entry bounding boxes outward might cause a
few extra entries to appears in an overlapping query if the edge of the
entry bounding box corresponds to an edge of the query bounding box. But
the overlapping query will never miss a valid table entry.
</p><p>However, for a "contained-within" style query, rounding the bounding
boxes outward might cause some entries to be excluded from the result set
if the edge of the entry bounding box corresponds to the edge of the query
bounding box. To guard against this, applications should expand their
contained-within query boxes slightly (by 0.000012%) by rounding down the
lower coordinates and rounding up the top coordinates, in each dimension.
<a name="readwrite"></a>
</p><h2 id="reading_and_writing_at_the_same_time"><span>3.5. </span>Reading And Writing At The Same Time</h2>
<p>
It is the nature of the Guttman R-Tree algorithm that any write might
radically restructure the tree, and in the process change the scan order
of the nodes. For this reason, it is not generally possible to modify
the R-Tree in the middle of a query of the R-Tree. Attempts to do so
will fail with a <a href="rescode.html#locked">SQLITE_LOCKED</a> "database table is locked" error.
</p><p>
So, for example, suppose an application runs one query against an R-Tree like
this:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT id FROM demo_index
WHERE maxY&gt;=35.0 AND minY&lt;=35.0;
</pre></div>
<p>
Then for each "id" value returned, suppose the application creates an
UPDATE statement like the following and binds the "id" value returned against
the "?1" parameter:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>UPDATE demo_index SET maxY=maxY+0.5 WHERE id=?1;
</pre></div>
<p>
Then the UPDATE might fail with an SQLITE_LOCKED error. The reason is that
the initial query has not run to completion. It is remembering its place
in the middle of a scan of the R-Tree. So an update to the R-Tree cannot
be tolerated as this would disrupt the scan.
</p><p>
This is a limitation of the R-Tree extension only. Ordinary tables in
SQLite are able to read and write at the same time. Other virtual tables
might (or might not) also that capability. And R-Tree can appear to read
and write at the same time in some circumstances, if it can figure out how
to reliably run the query to completion before starting the update. But
you shouldn't count on that for every query. Generally speaking, it is
best to avoid running queries and updates to the same R-Tree at the same
time.
</p><p>
If you really need to update an R-Tree based on complex queries against
the same R-Tree, it is best to run the complex queries first and store
the results in a temporary table, then update the R-Tree based on the values
stored in the temporary table.
</p><h1 id="using_r_trees_effectively"><span>4. </span>Using R*Trees Effectively</h1>
<p>
For SQLite versions prior to 3.24.0 (2018-06-04),
the only information that an R*Tree index stores about an object is
its integer ID and its bounding box. Additional information needs to
be stored in separate tables and related to the R*Tree index using
the primary key. For the example above, one might create an auxiliary
table as follows:
</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>CREATE TABLE demo_data(
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, -- primary key
objname TEXT, -- name of the object
objtype TEXT, -- object type
boundary BLOB -- detailed boundary of object
);
</pre></div>
<p>
In this example, the demo_data.boundary field is intended to hold some
kind of binary representation of the precise boundaries of the object.
The R*Tree index only holds an axis-aligned rectangular boundary for the
object. The R*Tree boundary is just an approximation of the true object
boundary. So what typically happens is that the R*Tree index is used to
narrow a search down to a list of candidate objects and then more detailed
and expensive computations are done on each candidate to find if the
candidate truly meets the search criteria.
</p>
<blockquote><p>
<strong>Key Point:</strong>
An R*Tree index does not normally provide the exact answer but merely
reduces the set of potential answers from millions to dozens.
</p></blockquote>
<p>
Suppose the demo_data.boundary field holds some proprietary data description
of a complex two-dimensional boundary for a zipcode and suppose that the
application has used the <a href="c3ref/create_function.html">sqlite3_create_function()</a> interface to
created an application-defined function "contained_in(boundary,lat,long)"
that accepts the demo_data.boundary object and a latitute and longitude
and returns return true or false if the lat/long is contained within
the boundary.
One may assume that "contained_in()" is a relatively slow
functions that we do not want to invoke too frequently.
Then an efficient way to find the specific ZIP code for the main
SQLite office would be to run a query like this:
</p>
<a name="diquery"></a>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT objname FROM demo_data, demo_index
WHERE demo_data.id=demo_index.id
AND contained_in(demo_data.boundary, 35.37785, -80.77470)
AND minX&lt;=-80.77470 AND maxX&gt;=-80.77470
AND minY&lt;=35.37785 AND maxY&gt;=35.37785;
</pre></div>
<p>Notice how the query above works: The R*Tree index runs in the outer
loop to find entries that contain the SQLite main office in their
boundary box.
For each row found, SQLite looks up
the corresponding entry in the demo_data table. It then uses the boundary
field from the demo_data table as a parameter to the contained_in()
function and if that function returns true, then we know the sought after
coordinate is in that ZIP code boundary.</p>
<p>One would get the same answer without the use of the R*Tree index
using the following simpler query:</p>
<div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT objname FROM demo_data
WHERE contained_in(demo_data.boundary, 35.37785, -80.77470);
</pre></div>
<p>The problem with this latter query is that it must apply the
contained_in() function to all entries in the demo_data table.
The use of the R*Tree in the penultimate query reduces the number of
calls to contained_in() function to a small subset of the entire table.
The R*Tree index did not find the exact answer itself, it merely
limited the search space.</p>
<a name="auxcol"></a>
<h2 id="auxiliary_columns"><span>4.1. </span>Auxiliary Columns</h2>
<p>
Beginning with SQLite version 3.24.0 (2018-06-04), r-tree tables
can have auxiliary columns that store arbitrary data.
Auxiliary columns can be used in place of
secondary tables such as "demo_data".
</p><p>
Auxiliary columns are marked with a "+" symbol before the column name.
Auxiliary columns must come after all of the coordinate boundary columns.
An RTREE table can have no more than 100 columns total. In other words,
the count of columns including the integer primary key column,
the coordinate boundary columns, and all auxiliary columns must be 100 or less.
The following example shows an r-tree table with auxiliary columns that
is equivalent to the two tables "demo_index" and "demo_data" above:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE demo_index2 USING rtree(
id, -- Integer primary key
minX, maxX, -- Minimum and maximum X coordinate
minY, maxY, -- Minimum and maximum Y coordinate
+objname TEXT, -- name of the object
+objtype TEXT, -- object type
+boundary BLOB -- detailed boundary of object
);
</pre></div>
<p>
By combining location data and related information into the same
table, auxiliary columns can provide a cleaner model
and reduce the need to joins.
For example, the earlier
<a href="#diquery">join between demo_index and demo_data</a> can now
be written as a simple query, like this:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT objname FROM demo_index2
WHERE contained_in(boundary, 35.37785, -80.77470)
AND minX&lt;=-80.77470 AND maxX&gt;=-80.77470
AND minY&lt;=35.37785 AND maxY&gt;=35.37785;
</pre></div>
<h3 id="limitations"><span>4.1.1. </span>Limitations</h3>
<p>
For auxiliary columns, only the name of the column matters.
The <a href="datatype3.html#affinity">type affinity</a> is ignored.
Constraints such as NOT NULL, UNIQUE, REFERENCES, or CHECK
are also ignored. However, future versions
of SQLite might start paying attention to the type affinity and
constraints, so users of auxiliary columns are advised to leave
both blank, to avoid future compatibility problems.
<a name="intrtree"></a>
</p><h1 id="integer_valued_r_trees"><span>5. </span>Integer-Valued R-Trees</h1>
<p>
The default virtual table ("rtree") stores coordinates as
single-precision (4-byte) floating point numbers. If integer coordinates
are desired, declare the table using "rtree_i32" instead:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE intrtree USING rtree_i32(id,x0,x1,y0,y1,z0,z1);
</pre></div>
<p>
An rtree_i32 stores coordinates as 32-bit signed integers.
Even though it stores values using integer, the rtree_i32 virtual
table still uses floating point computations internally as part of
the r-tree algorithm.
<a name="customquery"></a>
</p><h1 id="custom_r_tree_queries"><span>6. </span>Custom R-Tree Queries</h1>
<p>By using standard SQL expressions in the WHERE clause of a SELECT query,
a programmer can query for all R*Tree entries that
intersect with or are contained within a particular bounding-box.
Custom R*Tree queries, using the MATCH
operator in the WHERE clause of a SELECT, allow the programmer to query for
the set of R*Tree entries that intersect any arbitrary region or shape, not
just a box. This capability is useful, for example, in computing the
subset of objects in the R*Tree that are visible from a camera positioned
in 3-D space.
</p><p>Regions for custom R*Tree queries are defined by R*Tree geometry callbacks
implemented by the application and registered with SQLite via a call to one
of the following two APIs:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>int sqlite3_rtree_query_callback(
sqlite3 *db,
const char *zQueryFunc,
int (*xQueryFunc)(sqlite3_rtree_query_info*),
void *pContext,
void (*xDestructor)(void*)
);
int sqlite3_rtree_geometry_callback(
sqlite3 *db,
const char *zGeom,
int (*xGeom)(sqlite3_rtree_geometry *, int nCoord, double *aCoord, int *pRes),
void *pContext
);
</pre></div>
<p>The sqlite3_rtree_query_callback() became available with SQLite
<a href="releaselog/3_8_5.html">version 3.8.5</a> (2014-06-04) and is the preferred interface.
The sqlite3_rtree_geometry_callback() is an older and less flexible
interface that is supported for backwards compatibility.
</p><p>A call to one of the above APIs creates a new SQL function named by the
second parameter (zQueryFunc or zGeom). When that SQL function appears
on the right-hand side of the MATCH operator and the left-hand side of the
MATCH operator is any column in the R*Tree virtual table, then the callback
defined by the third argument (xQueryFunc or xGeom) is invoked to determine
if a particular object or subtree overlaps the desired region.
</p><p>For example, a query like the following might be used to find all
R*Tree entries that overlap with a circle centered a 45.3,22.9 with a
radius of 5.0:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT id FROM demo_index WHERE id MATCH circle(45.3, 22.9, 5.0)
</pre></div>
<p>The SQL syntax for custom queries is the same regardless of which
interface, sqlite3_rtree_geometry_callback() or sqlite3_rtree_query_callback(),
is used to register the SQL function. However, the newer query-style
callbacks give the application greater control over how the query proceeds.
</p><h2 id="the_legacy_xgeom_callback"><span>6.1. </span>The Legacy xGeom Callback</h2>
<p>The legacy xGeom callback is invoked with four arguments. The first
argument is a pointer to an sqlite3_rtree_geometry structure which provides
information about how the SQL function was invoked. The second argument
is the number of coordinates in each r-tree entry, and is always the same
for any given R*Tree. The number of coordinates is 2 for a 1-dimensional R*Tree,
4 for a 2-dimensional R*Tree, 6 for a 3-dimensional R*Tree, and so forth.
The third argument, aCoord[], is an array of nCoord coordinates that defines
a bounding box to be tested. The last argument is a pointer into which
the callback result should be written. The result is zero
if the bounding-box defined by aCoord[] is completely outside
the region defined by the xGeom callback and the result is non-zero if
the bounding-box is inside or overlaps with the xGeom region. The xGeom
callback should normally return SQLITE_OK. If xGeom returns anything other
than SQLITE_OK, then the r-tree query will abort with an error.
</p><p>The sqlite3_rtree_geometry structure that the first argument to the
xGeom callback points to has a structure shown below. The exact same
sqlite3_rtree_geometry
structure is used for every callback for same MATCH operator in the same
query. The contents of the sqlite3_rtree_geometry
structure are initialized by SQLite but are
not subsequently modified. The callback is free to make changes to the
pUser and xDelUser elements of the structure if desired.
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>typedef struct sqlite3_rtree_geometry sqlite3_rtree_geometry;
struct sqlite3_rtree_geometry {
void *pContext; /* Copy of pContext passed to s_r_g_c() */
int nParam; /* Size of array aParam */
double *aParam; /* Parameters passed to SQL geom function */
void *pUser; /* Callback implementation user data */
void (*xDelUser)(void *); /* Called by SQLite to clean up pUser */
};
</pre></div>
<p>The pContext member of the sqlite3_rtree_geometry
structure is always set to a copy of the pContext
argument passed to sqlite3_rtree_geometry_callback() when the
callback is registered. The aParam[] array (size nParam) contains the parameter
values passed to the SQL function on the right-hand side of the MATCH operator.
In the example "circle" query above, nParam would be set to 3 and the aParam[]
array would contain the three values 45.3, 22.9 and 5.0.
</p><p>The pUser and xDelUser members of the sqlite3_rtree_geometry structure are
initially set to NULL. The pUser variable may be set by the callback
implementation to any arbitrary value that may be useful to subsequent
invocations of the callback within the same query (for example, a
pointer to a complicated data structure used to test for region intersection).
If the xDelUser variable is set to a non-NULL value, then after the
query has finished running SQLite automatically invokes it with the
value of the pUser variable as the only argument. In other words, xDelUser
may be set to a destructor function for the pUser value.
</p><p>The xGeom callback always does a depth-first search of the r-tree.
<a name="xquery"></a>
</p><h2 id="the_new_xqueryfunc_callback"><span>6.2. </span>The New xQueryFunc Callback</h2>
<p>The newer xQueryFunc callback receives more information from the r-tree
query engine on each call, and it sends more information back to the query engine
before it returns.
To help keep the interface manageable, the xQueryFunc callback sends and receives
information from the query engine as fields in the
sqlite3_rtree_query_info structure:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>struct sqlite3_rtree_query_info {
void *pContext; /* pContext from when function registered */
int nParam; /* Number of function parameters */
sqlite3_rtree_dbl *aParam; /* value of function parameters */
void *pUser; /* callback can use this, if desired */
void (*xDelUser)(void*); /* function to free pUser */
sqlite3_rtree_dbl *aCoord; /* Coordinates of node or entry to check */
unsigned int *anQueue; /* Number of pending entries in the queue */
int nCoord; /* Number of coordinates */
int iLevel; /* Level of current node or entry */
int mxLevel; /* The largest iLevel value in the tree */
sqlite3_int64 iRowid; /* Rowid for current entry */
sqlite3_rtree_dbl rParentScore; /* Score of parent node */
int eParentWithin; /* Visibility of parent node */
int eWithin; /* OUT: Visiblity */
sqlite3_rtree_dbl rScore; /* OUT: Write the score here */
/* The following fields are only available in 3.8.11 and later */
sqlite3_value **apSqlParam; /* Original SQL values of parameters */
};
</pre></div>
<p>The first five fields of the sqlite3_rtree_query_info structure are identical
to the sqlite3_rtree_geometry structure, and have exactly the same meaning.
The sqlite3_rtree_query_info structure also contains nCoord and aCoord fields
which have the same meaning as the parameter of the same name in the xGeom callback.
</p><p>The xQueryFunc must set the eWithin field of sqlite3_rtree_query_info to
one of the values NOT_WITHIN, PARTLY_WITHIN, or FULLY_WITHIN depending on whether
or not the bounding box defined by aCoord[] is completely outside the region,
overlaps the region, or is completely inside the region, respectively. In
addition, the xQueryFunc must set the rScore field to a non-negative value that
indicates the order in which subtrees and entries of the query should be analyzed
and returned. Smaller scores are processed first.
</p><p>As its name implies, an R*Tree is organized as a tree. Each node of the
tree is a bounding box. The root of the tree is a bounding box that encapsulates
all elements of the tree. Beneath the root are a number of subtrees (typically
20 or more) each with their own smaller bounding boxes and each containing some
subset of the R*Tree entries. The subtrees may have sub-subtrees, and so forth
until finally one reaches the leaves of the tree which are the actual R*Tree
entries.
</p><p>An R*Tree query is initialized by making the root node the only entry
in a priority queue sorted by rScore.
The query proceeds by extracting the entry from the priority queue that has
the lowest score. If that entry is a leaf (meaning that it is an actual
R*Tree entry and not a subtree) then that entry
is returned as one row of the query result.
If the extracted priority queue entry is a node (a subtree),
then the next child of that node is passed to the xQueryFunc callback.
If the node has more children then it is returned to the priority queue.
Otherwise it is discarded. Those subelements for which the xQueryFunc
callback sets eWithin to PARTLY_WITHIN or FULLY_WITHIN are added to the
priority queue using the score supplied by the callback. Subelements that
return NOT_WITHIN are discarded. The query runs until the priority queue is
empty.
</p><p>Every leaf entry and node (subtree) within the R*Tree has an integer "level".
The leaves have a level of 0. The first containing subtree of the leaves has
a level of 1. The root of the R*Tree has the largest level value. The
mxLevel entry in the sqlite3_rtree_query_info structure is the level value for
the root of the R*Tree. The iLevel entry in sqlite3_rtree_query_info gives the
level for the object being interrogated.
</p><p>Most R*Tree queries use a depth-first search. This is accomplished by setting
the rScore equal to iLevel. A depth-first search is usually preferred since it
minimizes the number of elements in the priority queue, which reduces memory
requirements and speeds processing. However, some application may prefer a
breadth-first search, which can be accomplished by setting rScore to mxLevel-iLevel.
By creating more complex formulas for rScore, applications can exercise
detailed control over the order in which subtree are searched and leaf
R*Tree entries are returned. For example, in an application with many
millions of R*Tree entries, the rScore might be arranged so that the
largest or most significant entries are returned first, allowing the
application to display the most important information quickly, and
filling in smaller and less important details as they become available.
</p><p>Other information fields of the sqlite3_rtree_query_info structure are
available for use by the xQueryFunc callback, if desired. The iRowid field
is the rowid (the first of the 3 to 11 columns in the R*Tree) for the element
being considered. iRowid is only valid for leaves. The eParentWithin and
rParentScore values are copies of the eWithin and rScore values from the
containing subtree of the current row. The anQueue field is an array
of mxLevel+1 unsigned integers that tell the current number of elements in
the priority queue at each level.
</p><h2 id="additional_considerations_for_custom_queries"><span>6.3. </span>Additional Considerations for Custom Queries</h2>
<p>
The MATCH operator of a custom R*Tree query function must be a top-level
AND-connected term of the WHERE clause, or else it will not be usable
by the R*Tree query optimizer and the query will not be runnable.
If the MATCH operator is connected to other terms of the WHERE clause
via an OR operator, for example, the query will fail with an error.
</p><p>
Two or more MATCH operators are allowed in the same WHERE clause, as long
as they are connected by AND operators. However,
the R*Tree query engine only contains a single priority queue. The priority
assigned to each node in the search is the lowest priority returned by any
of the MATCH operators.
</p><h1 id="implementation_details"><span>7. </span>Implementation Details</h1>
<p>
The following sections describe some low-level details of the R*Tree implementation,
that might be useful for trouble-shooting or performance analysis.
<a name="xshadow"></a>
</p><h2 id="shadow_tables"><span>7.1. </span>Shadow Tables</h2>
<p>The content of an R*Tree index is actually stored in three ordinary
SQLite tables with names derived from the name of the R*Tree. These
three tables are called "<a href="vtab.html#xshadowname">shadow tables</a>". This is their schema:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>CREATE TABLE %_node(nodeno INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, data)
CREATE TABLE %_parent(nodeno INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, parentnode)
CREATE TABLE %_rowid(rowid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, nodeno)
</pre></div>
<p>The "%" in the name of each shadow table is replaced by the name of the
R*Tree virtual table. So, if the name of the R*Tree table is "xyz" then
the three shadow tables would be "xyz_node", "xyz_parent", and "xyz_rowid".
</p><p>There is one entry in the %_node table for each R*Tree node. An
R*Tree node consists of one or more entries that are proximate to one another.
The nodes of an R*Tree for a tree. All nodes other than the root have an
entry in the %_parent shadow table that identifies the parent node.
Each entry in an R*Tree has a rowid. The %_rowid shadow table maps entry
rowids to the node that contains that entry.
</p><p>Extra columns appended to the %_rowid table hold the
content of <a href="rtree.html#auxcol">auxiliary columns</a>. The names of these extra
%_rowid columns are probably not the same as the
actual auxiliary column names.
<a name="rtreecheck"></a>
</p><h2 id="integrity_check_using_the_rtreecheck_sql_function"><span>7.2. </span>Integrity Check using the rtreecheck() SQL function</h2>
<p>The scalar SQL function rtreecheck(R) or rtreecheck(S,R) runs an
integrity check on the rtree table named R contained within database S.
The function returns a human-language description of any problems found,
or the string 'ok' if everything is ok. Running rtreecheck() on an R*Tree
virtual table is similar to running <a href="pragma.html#pragma_integrity_check">PRAGMA integrity_check</a> on a
database.
</p><p>Example: To verify that an R*Tree named "demo_index" is well-formed
and internally consistent, run:
</p><div class="codeblock"><pre>SELECT rtreecheck('demo_index');
</pre></div>
<p>The rtreecheck() function performs the following checks:
</p><ol>
<li><p>
For each cell in the r-tree structure (%_node table), that:
</p><ol type="a">
<li><p> for each dimension, (coord1 &lt;= coord2).
</p></li><li><p> unless the cell is on the root node, that the cell is bounded
by the parent cell on the parent node.
</p></li><li><p> for leaf nodes, that there is an entry in the %_rowid
table corresponding to the cell's rowid value that
points to the correct node.
</p></li><li><p> for cells on non-leaf nodes, that there is an entry in the
%_parent table mapping from the cell's child node to the
node that it resides on.
</p></li></ol>
</li><li><p>
That there are the same number of entries in the %_rowid table
as there are leaf cells in the r-tree structure, and that there
is a leaf cell that corresponds to each entry in the %_rowid table.
</p></li><li><p>
That there are the same number of entries in the %_parent table
as there are non-leaf cells in the r-tree structure, and that
there is a non-leaf cell that corresponds to each entry in the
%_parent table.
</p></li></ol>
<p align="center"><small><i>This page last modified on <a href="https://sqlite.org/docsrc/honeypot" id="mtimelink" data-href="https://sqlite.org/docsrc/finfo/pages/rtree.in?m=703d907909">2023-02-20 00:00:42</a> UTC </small></i></p>
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