What does “foo” stand for in this PostGIS command?

“Foo” in PostGIS: What’s That All About?

So, you’re diving into PostGIS and keep seeing this weird “foo” thing pop up in the commands? Don’t sweat it; you’re not alone. It’s one of those programmer quirks that can leave you scratching your head if you’re not in the know. Basically, “foo” is just a placeholder.

Think of it like this: it’s the “x” in the algebra equation of the coding world. It stands in for something, but what it actually stands for isn’t the point right now. It’s there to show you how something works, without getting hung up on the nitty-gritty details of naming things. We’ve all been there, right? Trying to explain a concept and getting bogged down in the specifics? “Foo” helps avoid that.

“Foo” in the Wild: A PostGIS Sighting

Let’s look at a real-world example. The PostGIS docs, in their infinite wisdom, might show you something like this when creating a polygon from a line:

sql