v.to.db(1)

NAME
v.to.db - Populates attribute values from vector features.

KEYWORDS
vector, attribute table, database, area, azimuth, bounding box, category, compactness, coordinates, fractal, geometry, length, perimeter, sides, sinuous, slope

SYNOPSIS
v.to.db
v.to.db --help
v.to.db [-phsc] map=name [layer=string] [type=string[,string,...]] option=string columns=name[,name,...] [units=string] [query_layer=string] [query_column=name] [separator=character] format=name [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-p
    Print only

-h
    Print header

-s
    Only print SQL statements

-c
    Print also totals for option length, area, or count

--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:

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

layer=string
    Layer number or name (write 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

type=string[,string,...]
    Feature type
    For coor valid point/centroid, for length valid line/boundary
    Options: point, line, boundary, centroid
    Default: point,line,boundary,centroid

option=string [required]
    Value to upload
    Options: cat, area, compact, fd, perimeter, length, count, coor, start, end, sides, query, slope, sinuous, azimuth, bbox
    cat: insert new row for each category if doesn’t exist yet
    area: area size
    compact: compactness of an area, calculated as compactness = perimeter / (2 * sqrt(PI * area))
    fd: fractal dimension of boundary defining a polygon, calculated as fd = 2 * (log(perimeter) / log(area))
    perimeter: perimeter length of an area
    length: line length
    count: number of features for each category
    coor: point coordinates, X,Y or X,Y,Z
    start: line/boundary starting point coordinates, X,Y or X,Y,Z
    end: line/boundary end point coordinates, X,Y or X,Y,Z
    sides: categories of areas on the left and right side of the boundary, ’query_layer’ is used for area category
    query: result of a database query for all records of the geometry (or geometries) from table specified by ’query_layer’ option
    slope: slope steepness of vector line or boundary
    sinuous: line sinuousity, calculated as line length / distance between end points
    azimuth: line azimuth, calculated as angle between North direction and endnode direction at startnode
    bbox: bounding box of area, N,S,E,W

columns=name[,name,...] [required]
    Name of attribute column(s) to populate
    Name of attribute column(s)

units=string
    Units
    Options: miles, feet, meters, kilometers, acres, hectares, radians, degrees

query_layer=string
    Query layer number or name (read 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

query_column=name
    Name of attribute column used for ’query’ option
    E.g. ’cat’, ’count(*)’, ’sum(val)’

separator=character
    Field separator for print mode
    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), only used when print only flag is also set

DESCRIPTION
v.to.db loads vector map features or metrics into a database table, or prints them (or the SQL queries used to obtain them) in a form of a human-readable report. For uploaded/printed category values ’-1’ is used for ’no category’ and ’null’/’-’ if category cannot be found or multiple categories were found. For line azimuths ’-1’ is used for closed lines (start equals end).

NOTES
Measures of lengths and areas are always reported in meters, unless the unit parameter is set. The units miles, feet, meters and kilometers are square for option=area.

Feet and acre units are always reported in their common versions (i.e. the International Foot, exactly 5280 feet in a mile), even when the coordinate reference system’s standard map unit is the US Survey foot.

When calculating perimeters in Latitude-Longitude CRS, the geodesic distance between the vertices is used.

When using option=coor on a vector area map, only coordinates of centroids with unique category will be reported.

When using option=bbox on a vector area map with more than one feature per category value, the results corresponds to the bounding box of all features of same category taken together.

Line azimuth is calculated as angle from the North direction to the line endnode direction at the line statnode. By default it’s reported in decimal degrees (0-360, CW) but it also may be reported in radians with unit=radians. Azimuth value -1 is used to report closed line with it’s startnode and endnode being in same place. Azimuth values make sense only if every vector line has only one entry in database (unique CAT value).

If the module is apparently slow and the map attributes are stored in an external DBMS such as PostgreSQL, it is highly recommended to create an index on the key (category) column.

Uploading the vector map attributes to a database requires a table attached to a given input vector layer. The print only (-p) mode doesn’t require a table. Use db.execute or v.db.addtable to create a table if needed.

Updating the table has to be done column-wise. The column will be created in the table if it doesn’t already exist, except when using the print only (-p) mode. If the column exists, the --overwrite flag is required to overwrite it.

EXAMPLES

  Updating attribute tables
Upload category numbers to attribute table (used for new map):

v.to.db map=soils type=centroid option=cat

Upload polygon areas to corresponding centroid record in the attribute table:

v.to.db map=soils type=centroid option=area columns=area_size unit=h

Upload line lengths (in meters) of each vector line to attribute table (use v.category in case of missing categories):

v.to.db map=roads option=length type=line columns=linelength units=me

Upload x and y coordinates from vector geometry to attribute table:

v.to.db map=pointsmap option=coor columns=x,y

Upload x, y and z coordinates from vector geometry to attribute table:

v.to.db map=pointsmap option=coor columns=x,y,z

Transfer attributes from a character column (with numeric contents) to a new integer column:

v.db.addcolumn usa_income_employment2002 col="FIPS_NUM integer"
v.to.db usa_income_employment2002 option=query columns=FIPS_NUM query_column=STATE_FIPS

Upload category numbers of left and right area, to an attribute table of boundaries common for the areas:

# add categories for boundaries of the input vector map, in layer 2:
v.category soils out=mysoils layer=2 type=boundary option=add
# add a table with columns named "left" and "right" to layer 2 of the input
# vector map:
v.db.addtable mysoils layer=2 columns="left integer,right integer"
# upload categories of left and right areas:
v.to.db mysoils option=sides columns=left,right layer=2
# display the result:
v.db.select mysoils layer=2

Compute DL, the Fractal Dimension (Mandelbrot, 1982), of the boundary defining a polygon based on the formula:
D = 2 * (log perimeter) / (log area):

g.copy vect=soils,mysoils
v.db.addcolumn mysoils col="d double precision"
v.to.db mysoils option=fd column="d"
g.region vector=mysoils res=50
v.to.rast input=mysoils output=soils_fd type=area use=attr attribute_column=d
r.colors map=soils_fd color=gyr
d.mon wx0
d.rast.leg soils_fd
d.vect mysoils type=boundary

  Printing reports
Report x,y,z coordinates of points in the input vector map:

v.to.db -p bugsites option=coor type=point

Report all area sizes of the input vector map:

v.to.db -p soils option=area type=boundary units=h

Report all area sizes of the input vector map, in hectares, sorted by category number (requires GNU sort utility installed):

v.to.db -p soils option=area type=boundary units=h | sort -n

Report all line lengths of the input vector map, in kilometers:

v.to.db -p roads option=length type=line units=k

Report number of features for each category in the input vector map:

v.to.db -p roads option=count type=line

Report all line lengths of the input vector map in JSON format:

v.to.db busroute6 -p option=length type=line format=json

{
    "totals": {
        "length": 10426.657857419743
    },
    "records": [
        {
            "category": 1,
            "length": 4554.943058982206
        },
        {
            "category": 2,
            "length": 5871.714798437537
        }
    ]
}

REFERENCES

    •   Mandelbrot, B. B. (1982). The fractal geometry of nature. New York: W. H. Freeman.

    •   Xu, Y. F. & Sun, D. A. (2005). Geotechnique 55, No. 9, 691-695

SEE ALSO
d.what.vect, db.execute, v.category, v.db.addtable, v.db.addcolumn, v.db.connect, v.distance, v.report, v.univar, v.what

AUTHORS
Radim Blazek, ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
Line sinuosity implemented by Wolf Bergenheim

SOURCE CODE

Available at: v.to.db source code (history)

Latest change: Thursday May 07 14:38:34 2026 in commit: b28fe3135a09de48c06efbbcc108dd7c7e57223f

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© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.1dev Reference Manual