> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cockroachlabs.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# ST_Contains
export const InternalLink = ({version, path = "", children, ...props}) => {
let detectedVersion = version || "stable";
if (typeof window !== 'undefined' && !version) {
const match = window.location.pathname.match(/\/docs\/([^/]+)/);
if (match) {
detectedVersion = match[1];
}
}
const normalizedPath = path.startsWith("/") ? path.slice(1) : path;
return
{children}
;
};
Given two shapes *A* and *B*, the predicate function `ST_Contains(A, B)` returns `true` if:
* No point in *B* lies outside of shape *A*, and
* At least one point in the interior of *B* lies in the interior of *A*.
In other words, the exterior of shape *A* must not include any point in *B*, and one or more points of *B*'s interior must lie in the interior of *A*.
This behavior is similar to `ST_Covers`, except that the criteria are more exacting, and therefore some pairs of shapes will be rejected by this function that would be accepted by `ST_Covers`.
`ST_Contains` works on the following data types:
* `GEOMETRY`
\`\` will attempt to use any available spatial index to speed up its operation. Use the prefixed variant `_` if you do not want any spatial indexes to be used.
This function is the inverse of `ST_Within`.
## Examples
The screenshots in these examples were generated using [geojson.io](http://geojson.io), but they are designed to showcase the shapes, not the map. Representing `GEOMETRY` data in GeoJSON can lead to unexpected results if using geometries with SRIDs other than 4326 (as shown below).
### True
In this example, \`\` returns `true` because:
* No point in the LineString *B* lies outside of the Polygon *A*, and
* At least one point in the interior of *B* lies in the interior of *A*.
```sql theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-mocha","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
SELECT ST_Contains(st_geomfromtext('SRID=4326;POLYGON((-87.906471 43.038902, -95.992775 36.153980, -75.704722 36.076944, -87.906471 43.038902))'), st_geomfromtext('SRID=4326;LINESTRING(-88.243385 40.116421, -87.906471 43.038902, -95.992775 36.153980)'));
```
```
st_contains
---------------
true
(1 row)
```
### False
In this example, \`\` returns `false` because:
* At least one point in the interior of LineString *B* does not lie in the interior of the Polygon *A*.
Note that A query against these shapes with `ST_Covers` will return `true`.
```sql theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-mocha","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
SELECT st_contains(st_geomfromtext('SRID=4326;POLYGON((-87.906471 43.038902, -95.992775 36.153980, -75.704722 36.076944, -87.906471 43.038902))'), st_geomfromtext('SRID=4326;LINESTRING( -87.906471 43.038902, -95.992775 36.153980)'));
```
```
st_contains
---------------
false
(1 row)
```
## See also
* Export Spatial Data
* Spatial tutorial
* Spatial and GIS Glossary of Terms
* Spatial indexes
* Spatial functions
* `ST_Covers`
* `ST_CoveredBy`
* `ST_Within`
* `ST_Intersects`
* `ST_CoveredBy`
* `ST_Covers`
* `ST_Disjoint`
* `ST_Equals`
* `ST_Overlaps`
* `ST_Touches`
* `ST_ConvexHull`
* `ST_Union`
* Migrate from Shapefiles
* Migrate from GeoJSON
* Migrate from GeoPackage
* Migrate from OpenStreetMap
* [Introducing Distributed Spatial Data in CockroachDB](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/spatial-data/) (blog post)
* Using GeoServer with CockroachDB