PostGIS 1.5.

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Description
Return the estimated extent of the given spatial table. The estimated is taken from the geometry columns statistics. The current
schema will be used if not specified.
For PostgreSQL>=8.0.0 statistics are gathered by VACUUM ANALYZE and resulting extent will be about 95% of the real one.
For PostgreSQL<8.0.0 statistics are gathered by update_geometry_stats() and resulting extent will be exact.
This method supports Circular Strings and Curves

Examples
SELECT ST_Estimated_extent(ny, edges, the_geom);
--result-BOX(-8877653 4912316,-8010225.5 5589284)
SELECT ST_Estimated_Extent(feature_poly, the_geom);
--result-BOX(-124.659652709961 24.6830825805664,-67.7798080444336 49.0012092590332)

See Also
ST_Extent

7.12.5 ST_Expand
Name
ST_Expand Returns bounding box expanded in all directions from the bounding box of the input geometry. Uses doubleprecision

Synopsis
geometry ST_Expand(geometry g1, float units_to_expand);
box2d ST_Expand(box2d g1, float units_to_expand);
box3d ST_Expand(box3d g1, float units_to_expand);

Description
This function returns a bounding box expanded in all directions from the bounding box of the input geometry, by an amount
specified in the second argument. Uses double-precision. Very useful for distance() queries, or bounding box queries to add an
index filter to the query.
There are 3 variants of this. The one that takes a geometry will return a POLYGON geometry representation of the bounding box
and is the most commonly used variant.
ST_Expand is similar in concept to ST_Buffer except while buffer expands the geometry in all directions, ST_Expand expands
the bounding box an x,y,z unit amount.
Units are in the units of the spatial reference system in use denoted by the SRID

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Note
Pre 1.3, ST_Expand was used in conjunction with distance to do indexable queries.
Something of
the form the_geom && ST_Expand(POINT(10 20), 10) AND ST_Distance(the_geom, POINT(10 20)) < 10 Post 1.2, this was replaced with the easier ST_DWithin construct.

Note
Bounding boxes of all geometries are currently 2-d even if they are 3-dimensional geometries.

Note
Availability: 1.5.0 behavior changed to output double precision instead of float4 coordinates.

Examples

Note
Examples below use US National Atlas Equal Area (SRID=2163) which is a meter projection

--10 meter expanded box around bbox of a linestring

SELECT CAST(ST_Expand(ST_GeomFromText(LINESTRING(2312980 110676,2312923 110701,2312892
110714), 2163),10) As box2d);
st_expand
-----------------------------------BOX(2312882 110666,2312990 110724)

--10 meter expanded 3d box of a 3d box

SELECT ST_Expand(CAST(BOX3D(778783 2951741 1,794875 2970042.61545891 10) As box3d),10)
st_expand
----------------------------------------------------BOX3D(778773 2951731 -9,794885 2970052.61545891 20)
--10 meter geometry astext rep of a expand box around a point geometry
SELECT ST_AsEWKT(ST_Expand(ST_GeomFromEWKT(SRID=2163;POINT(2312980 110676)),10));
st_asewkt
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SRID=2163;POLYGON((2312970 110666,2312970 110686,2312990 110686,2312990 110666,2312970
110666))

See Also
ST_AsEWKT, ST_Buffer, ST_DWithin, ST_GeomFromEWKT,ST_GeomFromText, ST_SRID

7.12.6 ST_Extent
Name
ST_Extent an aggregate function that returns the bounding box that bounds rows of geometries.