Why don't ADQL functions like POINT or CIRCLE work in the web Query Interface?

Question

When using the web query interface (datalab.noao.edu/query.php), I get PSQL errors when I try to use some ADQL functions like POINT and CIRCLE.

For example, the following query runs fine:

SELECT ra, dec FROM ls_dr7.tractor_primary WHERE
(ra > -.05) AND (ra < .05) AND (dec > -.05) AND (dec < .05)

But this similar query fails:

SELECT ra, dec FROM ls_dr7.tractor_primary WHERE
CONTAINS(
POINT('ICRS', ra, dec),
CIRCLE('ICRS', 0.0, 0.0, 1.0))=1

with error:

Error: PSQLException: ERROR: function point(unknown, double precision, double precision) does not exist Hint: No function matches the given name and argument types. You might need to add explicit type casts. Position: 59

Why is this, and how do I get these ADQL functions to work in the web Query Interface?

Answer 1

Hi Eric,

So our ADQL implementation doesn't currently support the functions CONTAINS, POINT, and CIRCLE.  Implementing these are in our development plans.  But for a cone search, you can instead use the q3c function q3c_radial_query:

SELECT ra, dec FROM ls_dr7.tractor_primary WHERE
't' = Q3C_RADIAL_QUERY(ra, dec,0.0,0.0,0.1)

where ra and dec are the RA and DEC columns of ls_dr7.tractor_primary, the following two numbers are the ra and dec of a point in degrees, and 0.1 is the cone search radius in degrees.