Spatial data in its raw format is ugly. The shapes and places it represents can be very enlightening. Here’s some raw spatial data followed by their visualization. If you worked with spatial data, what would you prefer? You can probably figure out what you’re looking at, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a visual confirmation?
To see the shapes, just right-click
Map View, What’s that?
Do you remember the kid’s game, Pick Up Sticks? You’d throw a bunch of sticks on the ground and you had to pick them up one at a time following the rules…which I have seemed to have forgotten. Using Oracle SPATIAL I could store each game we play. Here’s how that might look:
When you right-click on the data you can also choose to ‘Invoke Map View on result set.’
I know these aren’t really real-world examples, but hopefully it’s good enough to give you an idea of how SPATIAL data representation works in SQL Developer. If you want to load some really cool looking data, try your local government. My county has it’s data available free for the taking.
And here’s the kids game, you can still buy it today!