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The Box2D type in Sedona represents a planar axis-aligned bounding box — a rectangle described by four Double values: xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax. It is a first-class SQL type backed by a Spark UDT and serializes to a struct of four non-nullable doubles, so columns of Box2D round-trip natively through Parquet and align with GeoParquet 1.1 bbox covering columns. Box2D complements the Geometry and Geography types. Use it when you need a compact, comparable bounding rectangle — for example, as a covering column on a GeoParquet table that lets the reader prune row groups, or as the join key in a spatial join that only needs an envelope-level match.

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Semantic notes

  • Box2D values use closed-interval semantics: edge-touching boxes are considered intersecting and contained (via ST_Intersects / ST_Contains over Box2D inputs).
  • Absence is represented by SQL NULL rather than an in-band sentinel.
  • Bounds are required to be ordered (xmin <= xmax, ymin <= ymax). Inverted-bound values are reserved for a future antimeridian-wraparound semantics on geography bboxes; predicates and join planning throw IllegalArgumentException on inverted input today.
  • Unlike ST_Envelope, which returns the envelope as a Geometry (typically a polygon, but JTS may return a Point or LineString for degenerate inputs), ST_Box2D always returns a typed Box2D value. Prefer the typed form when downstream code only needs the four bounds, and prefer the geometry form when downstream code expects a Geometry.

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Constructors

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Accessors

The same ST_XMin / ST_YMin / ST_XMax / ST_YMax functions also accept Geometry inputs — see Bounding Box Functions.

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Predicates

Box2D-on-Box2D overlap and containment are expressed through the standard ST_Intersects and ST_Contains predicates, which accept Box2D inputs directly with closed-interval semantics (ST_Intersects matches PostGIS && and ST_Contains matches PostGIS ~ on box2d).

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Utility functions

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Aggregates

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Type conversion

Catalyst recognizes SQL CAST between Box2D and Geometry: The cast forms require the Sedona SQL parser extension (spark.sql.extensions=org.apache.sedona.sql.SedonaSqlExtensions); the function forms work in any Sedona-enabled session.

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Query optimization

Box2D-typed columns are first-class participants in Sedona’s spatial optimizer:
  • Filter pushdown. ST_Intersects / ST_Contains predicates over a Box2D column and a literal Box2D push down to Parquet row-group statistics on the column’s underlying xmin / ymin / xmax / ymax leaves. See Box2D filter pushdown.
  • Spatial joins. ST_Intersects and ST_Contains over two Box2D columns route through the same physical operators (RangeJoinExec, BroadcastIndexJoinExec) used for Geometry. See Range join and Broadcast index join.