Distributed Action Handler 25.4
Distributed Action Handler Help

# DISTSPHERICAL

The `DISTSPHERICAL` field specifier allows you to find documents that define a location (latitude and longitude) that is within a specified distance from a specified point.

You can specify the document location using either a pair of fields (corresponding to latitude and longitude values), or a unified `GeospatialType` field that contains a supported geometric shape in Well-Known Text format.

TIP: If your document location field contains any shape other than a point, Knowledge Discovery calculates distances from the geometric center of the shape.

## Format

    FieldText=DISTSPHERICAL{lat,long,dist}:LOCATION

`lat` | The specified latitude. Specify latitude positions south of the equator as negative.
`long` | The specified longitude. Specify longitude positions west of the Greenwich Meridian as negative.
`dist` | The distance in kilometers from the specified latitude and longitude.
`LOCATION` | The document field or fields that contain the location value. You can use one of the following options to specify location fields: a single field. This field must contain a supported well-known text geometric object. See Supported Well-Known Text Geometric Objects. two fields, in the format `LATFIELD:LONGFIELD`, where `LATFIELD` is the field that contains the latitude value, and `LONGFIELD` is the field that contains the longitude value. You must specify the fields in the order `latitude:longitude`. You can specify multiple options for the location fields, in the form `LOCATION1:LOCATION2:LOCATION3`, and so on. This form can include a mix of types (unified location fields and split latitude and longitude fields). NOTE: If you use multiple position fields or field pairs, Distributed Action Handler cannot match documents where a pair of split geospatial fields occurs interleaved with other geospatial fields. For example, if you use `LAT1:LONG1:LOCATION` in your query, and these fields occur in a document in the order `LAT1`, `LOCATION`, `LONG1`, Distributed Action Handler does not match that document. In such cases, you can rewrite the query, in the form `DISTSPHERICAL{...}:LAT1:LONG1 OR DISTSPHERICAL{...}:LOCATION`

NOTE: You can optimize this field specifier by configuring your coordinate fields with the `GeospatialType` or `NumericType` property types. If you want to use a single field with well-known text definitions, you can optimize the field specifier only by using the unified `GeospatialType` property.

## Examples

    FieldText=DISTSPHERICAL{37.75,-122.4,20}:LAT:LONG

This example matches all documents whose position is within a 20 kilometer radius of San Francisco (37.75N,122.4W). The latitude and longitude position of a document in this example is contained in the fields `LAT` and `LONG`, respectively.

    FieldText=DISTSPHERICAL{52.2,0.1,20}:LOCATION:LAT:LONG

This example matches all documents whose position is within a 20 kilometer radius of Cambridge (52.2N,0.1W). The latitude and longitude position of a document in this example is contained in either the (unified) `LOCATION` field, or the `LAT` and `LONG` fields.

Copyright 2025 Open Text
Version 25.4 | Last updated October 2025

Send documentation feedback

Close

Send documentation feedback

To send feedback using your default email client, open an email window.

Otherwise, send your feedback and the information below to MFI-swpdl.idoldocsfeedback@opentext.com.

We appreciate your feedback!

Product: Knowledge Discovery Distributed Action Handler 25.4

Topic Title: DISTSPHERICAL