v.distance(1)

NAME
v.distance - Finds the nearest element in vector map ’to’ for elements in vector map ’from’.

KEYWORDS
vector, distance, database, attribute table

SYNOPSIS
v.distance
v.distance --help
v.distance [-pas] from=name [from_layer=string] [from_type=string[,string,...]] to=name [to_layer=string] [to_type=string[,string,...]] [output=name] [dmax=float] [dmin=float] upload=string[,string,...] [column=name[,name,...]] [to_column=name] [table=name] [separator=character] format=name [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-p
    Print output to stdout, don’t update attribute table
    First column is always category of ’from’ feature called from_cat

-a
    Calculate distances to all features within the threshold
    Output may be written to stdout using the ’-p’ flag or uploaded to a new table created by the ’table’ option; multiple ’upload’ options may be used.

-s
    Print output as square matrix (only possible for one single upload variable)

--overwrite
    Allow output files to overwrite existing files

--help
    Print usage summary

--verbose
    Verbose module output

--quiet
    Quiet module output

--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

  Parameters:

from=name [required]
    Name of existing vector map (from)
    Or data source for direct OGR access

from_layer=string
    Layer number or name (from)
    Vector features can have category values in different layers. This number determines which layer to use. When used with direct OGR access this is the layer name.
    Default: 1

from_type=string[,string,...]
    Feature type (from)
    Input feature type
    Options: point, line, boundary, centroid, area
    Default: point,line,area

to=name [required]
    Name of existing vector map (to)
    Or data source for direct OGR access

to_layer=string
    Layer number or name (to)
    Vector features can have category values in different layers. This number determines which layer to use. When used with direct OGR access this is the layer name.
    Default: 1

to_type=string[,string,...]
    Feature type (to)
    Input feature type
    Options: point, line, boundary, centroid, area
    Default: point,line,area

output=name
    Name for output vector map containing lines connecting nearest elements

dmax=float
    Maximum distance or -1 for no limit
    Map units, meters for ll
    Default: -1

dmin=float
    Minimum distance or -1 for no limit
    Map units, meters for ll
    Default: -1

upload=string[,string,...] [required]
    Values describing the relation between two nearest features
    Options: cat, dist, to_x, to_y, to_along, to_angle, to_attr
    cat: category of the nearest feature
    dist: minimum distance to nearest feature
    to_x: x coordinate of the nearest point on the ’to’ feature
    to_y: y coordinate of the nearest point on the ’to’ feature
    to_along: distance to the nearest point on the ’to’ feature along that linear feature
    to_angle: angle along the nearest linear feature in the ’to’ map, measured CCW from the +x axis, in radians, between -Pi and Pi inclusive
    to_attr: attribute of nearest feature given by to_column option

column=name[,name,...]
    Column name(s) where values specified by ’upload’ option will be uploaded

to_column=name
    Column name of nearest feature (used with upload=to_attr)

table=name
    Name for new attribute table

separator=character
    Field separator for printing output to stdout
    Special characters: pipe, comma, space, tab, newline
    Default: pipe

format=name [required]
    Output format
    Options: plain, json
    Default: plain
    plain: Plain text output
    json: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

DESCRIPTION
v.distance finds the nearest element in vector map (to) for elements in vector map (from). Various information about the vectors’ relationships (distance, category, etc.) may be uploaded to the attribute table attached to the first vector map, or printed to ’stdout’. A new vector map may be created where lines connecting nearest points on features are written. dmin and/or dmax can be used to limit the search radius (in lat-long projects to be given in meters since they are calculated as geodesic distances on a sphere).

For lines to lines, say line A to line B, v.distance calculates the shortest distance of each vertex in A with each segment (not vertex) in B. The module then calculates the shortest distance of each vertex in B to each segment in A. The overall shortest distance of A points to B segments and B points to A segments is used. Additionally, v.distance checks for intersections. In case of intersections, the first intersection found is used and the distance set to zero.

For lines to areas, the distance is set to zero if a line is (partially) inside an area. The first point of the line that is inside the area is used as common point. The distance is also set to zero if the line intersects with the outer ring or any of the inner rings (isles), in which case the fist intersection is used as common point.

For areas to areas, the module checks first for overlap or if one area is (partially) inside the other area. This is computationally quite intensive. If the outer rings of the two areas do not overlap, the distance is calculated as above for lines to lines, treating the outer rings as two lines. Again, the first point encountered falling into an area is used as common point, or the first intersection point.

For anything else than points to lines, there can be several common locations with zero distance, and the common location would then be the result of an overlay consisting of several points, lines, or areas. v.distance selects in these cases a single point, and does not create an overlay like v.overlay. In this implementation, any shared point is as good as any other. Calculating an intersection is costlier than to check if a vertex is inside a polygon. For example, if a vertex of the boundary of the ’to’ area is inside the ’from’ area, it is a common location. For speed reasons, the distance is then set to zero and no further tests are done.

NOTES
If a nearest feature does not have a category, the attribute column is updated to NULL.

The upload column(s) must already exist. Create one with v.db.addcolumn.

In lat-long projects v.distance gives distances (dist, from_along, and to_along) not in degrees but in meters calculated as geodesic distances on a sphere.

If one or both of the input vector maps are 3D, the user is notified accordingly.

The -p flag prints the results to standard output. By default the output is in form of a linear matrix. If only only variable is uploaded and a square matrix is desired, the user can set the -s flag.

EXAMPLES

  Find nearest lines
Find nearest lines in vector map "ln" for points from vector map "pnt" within the given threshold and write related line categories to column "linecat" in an attribute table attached to vector map "pnt":

v.distance from=pnt to=ln upload=cat column=linecat

  Find nearest area
For each point from vector map "pnt", find the nearest area from map "ar" within the given threshold and write the related area categories to column "areacat" in an attribute table attached to vector map "pnt" (in the case that a point falls into an area, the distance is zero):

v.distance from=pnt to=ar upload=cat column=areacat

  Create a new vector map
Create a new vector map which contains lines connecting nearest features of maps "pnt" and map "ln". The resulting vector map can be used for example to connect points to a network as needed for network analysis:

v.distance from=pnt to=ln out=connections upload=dist column=dist

  Create a new vector map with from and to categories in the attribute table
Create a new vector map that contains lines connecting nearest features of maps "pnt" and map "ln", and a new attribute table that contains distances, from and to categories from the input maps:

v.distance from=pnt to=ln out=connections upload=cat,dist column=to_cat,dist table=connections

  Query information
Query information from selected point(s). v.distance takes points from a vector map as input instead of stdin. A new vector map with query points has to be created before the map can be analysed.

Create query map (if not present):

echo "123456|654321|1" | v.in.ascii output=pnt

Find nearest features:

v.distance -p from=pnt to=map_to_query upload=cat

  Point-in-polygon
The option dmax=0 is here important because otherwise for points not falling into any area, the category of the nearest area is recorded.
For each point from vector map "pnt", find the area from vector map "ar" in which the individual point falls, and write the related area categories to column "areacat" into the attribute table attached to vector map "pnt":

v.distance from=pnt to=ar dmax=0 upload=cat column=areacat

  Univariate statistics on results
Create a vector map containing connecting lines and investigate mean distance to targets. An alternative solution is to use the v.distance upload=dist option to upload distances into the bugs vector directly, then run v.univar on that. Also note you can upload two columns at a time, e.g. v.distance upload=cat,dist column=nearest_id,dist_to_nr.

# create working copy
g.copy vect=bugsites,bugs
# add new attribute column to hold nearest archsite category number
v.db.addcolumn map=bugs column="nrst_arch INTEGER"
v.distance from=bugs to=archsites to_type=point upload=to_attr \
  to_column=cat column=nrst_arch out=vdistance_vectors_raw
# we need to give the lines category numbers, create a table, and create
#  a column in that table to hold the distance data.
v.category vdistance_vectors_raw out=vdistance_vectors type=line op=add
g.remove -f type=vector name=vdistance_vectors_raw
v.db.addtable map=vdistance_vectors column="length DOUBLE"
v.to.db map=vdistance_vectors option=length column=length
# calculate statistics
v.univar vdistance_vectors column=length

  Print distance between points
Example for a Latitude-longitude project (EPSG 4326):

# points along the equator
echo "0|-61|1" | v.in.ascii output=pnt1 input=-
echo "0|-58|1" | v.in.ascii output=pnt2 input=-
# here, distances are in degree units
v.distance -p --q from=pnt1 to=pnt2 upload=dist
from_cat|distance
1|3

  Print distance matrix
North Carolina sample data

As linear matrix:

v.distance -pa from=hospitals to=hospitals upload=dist,to_attr to_column=NAME separator=tab
from_cat    to_cat  dist    to_attr
1   1   0   Cherry Hospital
1   2   7489.1043632983983  Wayne Memorial Hospital
1   3   339112.17046729225  Watauga Medical Center
1   4   70900.392145909267  Central Prison Hospital
1   5   70406.227393921712  Dorothea Dix Hospital

As square matrix (only possible with single upload option):

v.distance -pas from=hospitals to=hospitals upload=dist separator=tab
from_cat to_cat       dist
              1          2          3          4          5 ...
1             0    7489.10  339112.17   70900.39   70406.23 ...
2       7489.10          0  345749.12   76025.46   75538.87 ...
3     339112.17  345749.12          0  274153.19  274558.98 ...
4      70900.39   76025.46  274153.19          0     501.11 ...
5      70406.23   75538.87  274558.98     501.11          0 ...
...

  Print in JSON

v.distance -p from=busroute_a to=busstopsall upload=dist,to_attr to_column=routes format=json

[
    {
        "from_cat": 1,
        "to_cat": 112,
        "distances": [
            {
                "value": 0.1428123184481199,
                "name": "dist"
            },
            {
                "value": "8,A",
                "name": "to_attr"
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "from_cat": 2,
        "to_cat": 44,
        "distances": [
            {
                "value": 0.10232660032693719,
                "name": "dist"
            },
            {
                "value": "9,A",
                "name": "to_attr"
            }
        ]
    }
]

SEE ALSO
r.distance, v.db.addcolumn, v.what.vect

AUTHORS
Janne Soimasuo 1994, University of Joensuu, Faculty of Forestry, Finland
Cmd line coordinates support: Markus Neteler, ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
Updated for 5.1: Radim Blazek, ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
Matrix-like output by Martin Landa, FBK-irst, Trento, Italy
Improved processing speed: Markus Metz
Distance from any feature to any feature: Markus Metz
New table without the -p flag: Huidae Cho Make linear matrix the default for all outputs: Moritz Lennert

SOURCE CODE

Available at: v.distance source code (history)

Accessed: Monday May 11 17:55:04 2026

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