Boost C++ Libraries

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area

Calculates the area of a geometry.

Description

The free function area calculates the area of a geometry. It uses the default strategy, based on the coordinate system of the geometry.

The area algorithm calculates the surface area of all geometries having a surface, namely box, polygon, ring, multipolygon. The units are the square of the units used for the points defining the surface. If subject geometry is defined in meters, then area is calculated in square meters.

The area calculation can be done in all three common coordinate systems, Cartesian, Spherical and Geographic as well.

Synopsis

template<typename Geometry>
area_result<Geometry>::type area(Geometry const & geometry)

Parameters

Type

Concept

Name

Description

Geometry const &

Any type fulfilling a Geometry Concept

geometry

A model of the specified concept

Returns

The calculated area

Header

Either

#include <boost/geometry.hpp>

Or

#include <boost/geometry/algorithms/area.hpp>

Conformance

The function area implements function Area from the OGC Simple Feature Specification.

Behavior

Case

Behavior

pointlike (e.g. point)

Returns 0

linear (e.g. linestring)

Returns 0

areal (e.g. polygon)

Returns the area

Cartesian

Returns the area in the same units as the input coordinates

Spherical

Returns the area on a unit sphere (or another sphere, if specified as such in the constructor of the strategy)

Reversed polygon (coordinates not according their orientiation)

Returns the negative area

Supported geometries

Geometry

Status

Point

ok

Segment

ok

Box

ok

Linestring

ok

Ring

ok

Polygon

ok

MultiPoint

ok

MultiLinestring

ok

MultiPolygon

ok

Variant

ok

Complexity

Linear

Examples

Calculate the area of a polygon

#include <iostream>

#include <boost/geometry.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/point_xy.hpp>
#include <boost/geometry/geometries/polygon.hpp>

namespace bg = boost::geometry; 1

int main()
{
    // Calculate the area of a cartesian polygon
    bg::model::polygon<bg::model::d2::point_xy<double> > poly;
    bg::read_wkt("POLYGON((0 0,0 7,4 2,2 0,0 0))", poly);
    double area = bg::area(poly);
    std::cout << "Area: " << area << std::endl;

    // Calculate the area of a spherical equatorial polygon
    bg::model::polygon<bg::model::point<float, 2, bg::cs::spherical_equatorial<bg::degree> > > sph_poly;
    bg::read_wkt("POLYGON((0 0,0 45,45 0,0 0))", sph_poly);
    area = bg::area(sph_poly);
    std::cout << "Area: " << area << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

1

Convenient namespace alias

Output:

Area: 16
Area: 0.339837

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