SQL Query failures around the South Pole

Question

Hi all,
I ran into a problem testing query functions on an Oracle DB with 6M+ simulated image rectangles.
The search rectangles were created to cover the earth on 10 degree by 10 degree map rectangles. At the south(north) pole, this means the lower(upper) X edge would have no size at all.
When the query is initiated for 10 degree by 10 degree search rectangles whose lower bound is 90 degrees south, the PL/SQL engine goes into infinite recursion and fails to return. It is my understanding a work around would be to create search windows whose lower(upper) bound would be just away from the southernmost(northernmost) latitude. However, is there another problem I am not seeing? Is there a tolerance setting I should be using for queries like this?
Here is a sample SQL statement:
SELECT count(*)
FROM SIX_AMIN_POLYGONS A, SEARCH_WINDOWS C
WHERE C.NAME LIKE 'S90.0%'
AND SDO_RELATE(A.GEOMETRY,C.GEOMETRY,
'mask=inside+coveredby+overlapbdyintersect')='TRUE';
Here is the error associated:
Exception in thread "main" java.sql.SQLException: ORA-00604: error occurred at recursive SQL level 1
ORA-21780: Maximum number of object durations exceeded.
ORA-21780: Maximum number of object durations exceeded.
ORA-29903: error in executing ODCIIndexFetch() routine
ORA-21780: Maximum number of object durations exceeded.
This occurs in Java and in sqlplus.
This is handled in PostGIS/PostgreSQL (how?), so I am wondering if there is a way to set the Oracle up to handle these cases as well.
Thanks,
Jeff

Answer 1

All Oracle Spatial functions and operators, including RELATE, work fine for geodetic query geometries which include the poles. When you say you are using a query rectangle at the south pole, I suspect you have a query geometry like this:
SDO_GEOMETRY(2003, 8307, NULL, SDO_ELEM_INFO_ARRAY(1,3,1),
SDO_ORDINATE_ARRAY(0, -90, 10, -90, 10, -80, 0, -80, 0, -90))
The problem with this is that the geometry is not valid. The vertices {0, -90} and {10, -90} are the same (it does not matter what the longitude number is at the pole - it is still the pole). With a duplicate vertex the query geometry is not valid. Try this for the geometry and it will probably work fine:
SDO_GEOMETRY(2003, 8307, NULL, SDO_ELEM_INFO_ARRAY(1,3,1),
SDO_ORDINATE_ARRAY(0, -90, 10, -80, 0, -80, 0, -90))
If you were to run SDO_GEOM.VALIDATE_LAYER_WITH_CONTEXT() on your tables before trying to use any operators or functions, it would catch errors like the above.