Stripping out Z values in PostGIS

Question

How do I get rid of the Z dimension in PostGIS?

Specifically, I have some MultiPolygonZs that I want to copy into another table as MultiPolygons. I don't care about the Z values - it's okay to just throw them away.

Answer 1

You should be able to do this with ST_Force2D

This is the example from the manual:

SELECT  ST_AsEWKT(ST_Force2D('POLYGON((0 0 2,0 5 2,5 0 2,0 0 2),(1 1 2,3 1 2,1 3 2,1 1 2))'));

                  st_asewkt
----------------------------------------------
 POLYGON((0 0,0 5,5 0,0 0),(1 1,3 1,1 3,1 1))

It might be possible to use a CAST operator as well (depending on some implicit, not well documented rules), but I'd go with the function on this.