SQL Server 2008 GEOGRAPHY STDistance() value

Question

I am using geography.STDistance() to return the distance between two single point locations. I'm curious as to which measurement is used for the return value? Is it in KM's, miles or perhaps some other?

I'm getting results back upwards of 250k but i've no idea if im doing something wrong with my TSQL as these are historical locations(i.e. they no longer exist) so I can't just do a quick lookup.

declare @p1 geography

declare @p2 geography

SELECT @p1 = Location from tblLocations where Id = 1
SELECT @p2 = Location from tblLocations where Id = 2

select @p1.STDistance(@p2)

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3335773/sql-server-2008-geography-stdistance-value

Answer 1

I think the return measurement depends upon the Spatial Reference Identifiers (SRIDs) of your geography data type. The default is 4326 which is in meters. There' a table in the DB you can check Select * from sys.spatial_reference_systems