Input data formats and geometry data types

To use geospatial functions in Athena, input your data in the WKT format, or use the Hive JSON SerDe. You can also use the geometry data types supported in Athena.

Input data formats

To handle geospatial queries, Athena supports input data in these data formats:

• WKT (Well-known Text). In Athena, WKT is represented as a varchar(x) or string data type.

• JSON-encoded geospatial data. To parse JSON files with geospatial data and create tables for them, Athena uses the Hive JSON SerDe. For more information about using this SerDe in Athena, see JSON SerDe libraries.

Geometry data types

To handle geospatial queries, Athena supports these specialized geometry data types:

• point

• line

• polygon

• multiline

• multipolygon