wellknown introduction

wellknown is an R client to convert WKT to GeoJSON, and GeoJSON to WKT. Well-known text is perhaps not as widely known as GeoJSON, but is widely used when storing geosptial data in SQL databases. Many RDBMS engines provide support. There is a binary equivalent, Well-known binary, that will hopefully come later in this package. WKT has similar spatial objects as GeoJSON, but the format is pretty different.

You can find the WKT specification in a PDF at https://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=25355.

WKT from R stuctures

There’s a family of functions in wellknown that make it easy to go from familiar R objects like lists and data.frames to WKT, including:

point() - make a point, e.g., POINT (-116 45)
multipoint() - make a multipoint, e.g., MULTIPOINT ((100 3), (101 2))
linestring() - make a linestring, e.g., LINESTRING (100 0, 101 1)
polygon() - make a polygon, e.g., POLYGON ((100 0), (101 0), (101 1), (100 0))
multipolygon() - make a multipolygon, e.g., MULTIPOLYGON (((30 20, 45 40, 10 40, 30 20)), ((15 5, 40 10, 10 20, 5 10, 15 5)))

The above currently accept (depending on the fxn) numeric, list, and data.frame (and character for special case of EMPTY WKT objects).

Geojson to WKT and vice versa

geojson2wkt() and wkt2geojson() cover a subset of the various formats available:

Point
MultiPoint
Polygon
MultiPolygon
LineString
MultilineString
Geometrycollection

Geojson to WKT

geojson2wkt() converts any geojson as a list to a WKT string (the same format )

WKT to Geojson

wkt2geojson() converts any WKT string into geojson as a list. This list format for geojson can be used downstream e.g., in the leaflet package.

Install

Stable version from CRAN

install.packages("wellknown")

Development version from GitHub

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ropensci/wellknown")

library("wellknown")

GeoJSON to WKT

Point

point <- list(Point = c(116.4, 45.2, 11.1))
geojson2wkt(point)
#> [1] "POINT Z(116.4000000000000057  45.2000000000000028  11.0999999999999996)"

Multipoint

mp <- list(
  MultiPoint = matrix(c(100, 101, 3.14, 3.101, 2.1, 2.18), ncol = 2)
)
geojson2wkt(mp)
#> [1] "MULTIPOINT ((100.0000000000000000 3.1010000000000000), (101.0000000000000000 2.1000000000000001), (3.1400000000000001 2.1800000000000002))"

LineString

st <- list(
  LineString = matrix(c(0.0, 2.0, 4.0, 5.0, 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0), ncol = 2) 
)
geojson2wkt(st, fmt = 0)
#> [1] "LINESTRING (0 0, 2 1, 4 2, 5 4)"

Multilinestring

multist <- list(
  MultiLineString = list(
    matrix(c(0, -2, -4, -1, -3, -5), ncol = 2),
    matrix(c(1.66, 10.9999, 10.9, 0, -31.5, 3.0, 1.1, 0), ncol = 2)
  )
)
geojson2wkt(multist)
#> [1] "MULTILINESTRING ((0.0000000000000000 -1.0000000000000000, -2.0000000000000000 -3.0000000000000000, -4.0000000000000000 -5.0000000000000000), (1.6599999999999999 -31.5000000000000000, 10.9999000000000002 3.0000000000000000, 10.9000000000000004 1.1000000000000001, 0.0000000000000000 0.0000000000000000))"

Polygon

poly <- list(
  Polygon = list(
    matrix(c(100.001, 101.1, 101.001, 100.001, 0.001, 0.001, 1.001, 0.001),
           ncol = 2),
    matrix(c(100.201, 100.801, 100.801, 100.201, 0.201, 0.201, 0.801, 0.201),
           ncol = 2)
  )
)
geojson2wkt(poly)
#> [1] "POLYGON ((100.0010000000000048 0.0010000000000000, 101.0999999999999943 0.0010000000000000, 101.0010000000000048 1.0009999999999999, 100.0010000000000048 0.0010000000000000), (100.2009999999999934 0.2010000000000000, 100.8010000000000019 0.2010000000000000, 100.8010000000000019 0.8010000000000000, 100.2009999999999934 0.2010000000000000))"

Multipolygon

mpoly <- list(
  MultiPolygon = list(
    list(
      matrix(c(100, 101, 101, 100, 0.001, 0.001, 1.001, 0.001), ncol = 2),
      matrix(c(100.2, 100.8, 100.8, 100.2, 0.2, 0.2, 0.8, 0.2), ncol = 2)
    ),
    list(
      matrix(c(1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 1.0), ncol = 2),
      matrix(c(9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 9.0), ncol = 2)
    )
  )
)
geojson2wkt(mpoly, fmt = 1)
#> [1] "MULTIPOLYGON (((100.000 0.001, 101.000 0.001, 101.000 1.001, 100.000 0.001), (100.2 0.2, 100.8 0.2, 100.8 0.8, 100.2 0.2)), ((1.0 5.0, 2.0 6.0, 3.0 7.0, 4.0 1.0), (9.0 1.0, 10.0 2.0, 11.0 3.0, 12.0 9.0)))"

GeometryCollection

gmcoll <- list(
 type = 'GeometryCollection',
 geometries = list(
   list(Point = c(0.0, 1.0)),
   list(LineString = matrix(c(0.0, 2.0, 4.0, 5.0, 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0), ncol = 2)),
   list(Polygon = list(
     matrix(c(100.001, 101.1, 101.001, 100.001, 0.001, 0.001, 1.001, 0.001),
       ncol = 2),
     matrix(c(100.201, 100.801, 100.801, 100.201, 0.201, 0.201, 0.801, 0.201),
       ncol = 2)
  ))
 )
)
geojson2wkt(gmcoll, fmt = 0)
#> [1] "GEOMETRYCOLLECTION (POINT (0 1), LINESTRING (0 0, 2 1, 4 2, 5 4), POLYGON ((100.001 0.001, 101.100 0.001, 101.001 1.001, 100.001 0.001), (100.201 0.201, 100.801 0.201, 100.801 0.801, 100.201 0.201)))"

Convert json or character objects

You can convert directly from an object of class json, which is output from jsonlite::toJSON().

library("jsonlite")
(json <- toJSON(list(type = "Point", coordinates = c(-105, 39)), auto_unbox = TRUE))
#> {"type":"Point","coordinates":[-105,39]}

geojson2wkt(json)
#> [1] "POINT (-105   39)"

And you can convert from a geojson character string:

str <- '{"type":"LineString","coordinates":[[0,0,10],[2,1,20],[4,2,30],[5,4,40]]}'
geojson2wkt(str)
#> [1] "LINESTRING Z(0 0 10, 2 1 20, 4 2 30, 5 4 40)"

WKT to GeoJSON

Point

As a Feature

str <- "POINT (-116.4000000000000057 45.2000000000000028)"
wkt2geojson(str)
#> $type
#> [1] "Feature"
#> 
#> $geometry
#> $geometry$type
#> [1] "Point"
#> 
#> $geometry$coordinates
#> [1] -116.4   45.2
#> 
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "geojson"

Not Feature

wkt2geojson(str, feature = FALSE)
#> $type
#> [1] "Point"
#> 
#> $coordinates
#> [1] -116.4   45.2
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
#> [1] "geojson"

Multipoint

str <- 'MULTIPOINT ((100.000 3.101), (101.000 2.100), (3.140 2.180))'
wkt2geojson(str, feature = FALSE)
#> $type
#> [1] "MultiPoint"
#> 
#> $coordinates
#>        [,1]  [,2]
#> [1,] 100.00 3.101
#> [2,] 101.00 2.100
#> [3,]   3.14 2.180
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
...

Polygon

str <- "POLYGON ((100 0.1, 101.1 0.3, 101 0.5, 100 0.1), (103.2 0.2, 104.8 0.2, 100.8 0.8, 103.2 0.2))"
wkt2geojson(str, feature = FALSE)
#> $type
#> [1] "Polygon"
#> 
#> $coordinates
#> $coordinates[[1]]
#>       [,1] [,2]
#> [1,] 100.0  0.1
#> [2,] 101.1  0.3
#> [3,] 101.0  0.5
#> [4,] 100.0  0.1
...

MultiPolygon

str <- "MULTIPOLYGON (((40 40, 20 45, 45 30, 40 40)),
    ((20 35, 45 20, 30 5, 10 10, 10 30, 20 35), (30 20, 20 25, 20 15, 30 20)))"
wkt2geojson(str, feature = FALSE)
#> $type
#> [1] "MultiPolygon"
#> 
#> $coordinates
#> $coordinates[[1]]
#> $coordinates[[1]][[1]]
#>      [,1] [,2]
#> [1,]   40   40
#> [2,]   20   45
#> [3,]   45   30
...

Linestring

wkt2geojson("LINESTRING (0 -1, -2 -3, -4 5)", feature = FALSE)
#> $type
#> [1] "LineString"
#> 
#> $coordinates
#>      [,1] [,2]
#> [1,]    0   -1
#> [2,]   -2   -3
#> [3,]   -4    5
#> 
#> attr(,"class")
...

lint WKT

The lint() function uses native R to check for correct stucture of WKT strings. That is, it works, but may be slow-ish for very large strings.

lint("POINT (1 2)")
#> [1] TRUE
lint("LINESTRING EMPTY")
#> [1] TRUE
lint("MULTIPOINT ((1 2), (3 4), (-10 100))")
#> [1] TRUE
lint("POLYGON((20.3 28.6, 20.3 19.6, 8.5 19.6, 8.5 28.6, 20.3 28.6))")
#> [1] TRUE
lint("MULTIPOLYGON (((30 20, 45 40, 10 40, 30 20)), ((15 5, 40 10, 10 20, 5 10, 15 5)))")
#> [1] TRUE
lint("POINT (1 2 3 4 5)")
#> [1] FALSE
lint("LINESTRING (100)")
#> [1] FALSE
lint("MULTIPOLYGON (((30 20, 45 40, 10 40, 30 20)), ((15 5, a b, 10 20, 5 10, 15 5)))")
#> [1] FALSE

Introduction to the wellknown package

Scott Chamberlain

2020-01-08

wellknown introduction

WKT from R stuctures

Geojson to WKT and vice versa

Geojson to WKT

WKT to Geojson

Install

GeoJSON to WKT

Point

Multipoint

LineString

Multilinestring

Polygon

Multipolygon

GeometryCollection

Convert json or character objects

WKT to GeoJSON

Point

Multipoint

Polygon

MultiPolygon

Linestring

lint WKT