Creating Point Geometries with ST_MakePoint
There are numerous ways of creating point geometries in PostGIS. We have covered these ways in other snippets. Check out the fulling links for other examples.
ST_MakePoint is perhaps in terms of speed the fastest way of creating a PostGIS geometry and on tests I have done, can be as much as 5 to 10 times faster. The downside of MakePoint is that it is not defined in the OGC spec so its not quite as portable across other spatial databases as is ST_GeomFromText and PointFromText.
ST_MakePoint is used in the form MakePoint(x, y) which for pretty much all spatial reference systems means ST_MakePoint(longitude, latitude)
Transformable (Reprojectable) and Non-Transformable Geometries
MakePoint used alone creates a nontransformable geometry (one that has an SRID = -1, so because of that, MakePoint is usually used in conjunction with SetSRID to create a point geometry with spatial reference information. Examples below and the EWKT output to demonstrate the differences.
Example below can not be used in a transformation to transform to another Spatial Reference System
SELECT ST_MakePoint(-71.09405383923, 42.3151215523721) as the_point, AsEWKT(ST_MakePoint(-71.09405383923, 42.3151215523721)) as ewkt_rep
Emparting Spatial Information to MakePoint Geometry
SELECT SETSRID(ST_MakePoint(-71.09405383923, 42.3151215523721),4326) as the_point, ST_AsEWKT(ST_SetSRID(ST_MakePoint(-71.09405383923, 42.3151215523721),4326)) as ewkt_rep
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