Geometery access via JDBC

From: Laura P (laura.paterson_at_gmail.com)
Date: 08/20/04 

Date: 20 Aug 2004 02:32:55 -0700

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows if there is any vendor-inspecific way
of storing and querying a polygon shape via the JDBC?

I currently have an application that stores a simple rectangle across
4 decimal columns: top left lat; top left lon; bottom left lat; bottom
left lon. These are easy to populate and to query (to discover if a
specified area is contained within the rectangle).

However, I know have a new requirement that states that my stored
geometery should be a polygon composed of one or more coordinates. I
have been having difficulty defining a geometry structure that is
efficient to query.

I know there are various geometry functions in MySQL and Oracle, but I
need a function that will work on both, and work across JDBC...

If anyone could tell me if such a function exists, or can suggest a
workaround I would be very grateful!

Thank you,
Laura