# Spatial data manipulation

!!! admonition "Version added: 11.20"

Organizations dealing with spatial data need to store it somewhere and manipulate it. [PostGIS](https://postgis.net/) is the open-source extension for PostgreSQL that allows doing just that. It adds support for storing the spatial data types such as:

* Geographical data like points, lines, polygons, GPS coordinates that can be mapped on a sphere.
* Geometrical data. This is also points, lines and polygons but they apply to a 2D surface.

To operate with spatial data inside SQL queries, PostGIS supports [spatial functions](https://postgis.net/docs/reference.html#SRS_Functions) like distance, area, union, intersection. It uses the spatial indexes like [R-Tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-tree) and [Quadtree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadtree) for efficient processing of database operations. Read more about supported spatial functions and indexes in [PostGIS documentation](https://postgis.net/workshops/postgis-intro/introduction.html). 

By deploying PostGIS with Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL, you receive the open source spatial database that you can use in various areas without vendor lock-in. PostGIS packages from Percona are available for all currently supported PostgreSQL versions.

## When to use PostGIS

You can use PostGIS in the following cases:

* To store and manage spatial data, create and store spatial shapes, calculate areas and distances
* To build the software that visualizes spatial data on a map, 
* To work with raster data, such as satellite imagery or digital elevation models.
* To integrate spatial and non-spatial data such as demographic or economic data in a database

## When not to use PostGIS

Despite its power and flexibility, PostGIS may not suit your needs if:

* You need to store only a couple of map locations. Consider using the [built-in geometric functions and operations of PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/functions-geometry.html)
* You need real-time data analysis. While PostGIS can handle real-time spatial data, it may not be the best option for real-time data analysis on large volumes of data.
* You need complex 3D analysis or visualization.
* You need to acquire spatial data. Use other tools for this purpose and import spatial data into PostGIS to manipulate it.

## Next steps:

[Deployment](postgis-deploy.md)