The semantics of NULL are well defined for us already in SQL standards. However, in the world of Geometry / Geography we have another entity which is not quite NULL nor quite fully defined: the empty geometry. Empty geometries can be created with things like intersection calls that have have no intersection, e.g. ST_Intersect('POINT(0 0)', 'POINT(1 1)') == POINT EMPTY. So, in the presence of empty, how should functions behave? * ST_Union(geometry, empty) == geometry * ST_Union(empty, empty) == empty * ST_Difference(geometry, empty) == geometry * ST_Difference(empty, geometry) == empty * ST_Distance(geometry, empty) == NULL * ST_DWithin(geometry, empty, tolerance) == FALSE * ST_Contains(geometry, empty) == FALSE * ??? ST_Contains(empty, empty) == FALSE * ST_Intersects(geometry, empty) == FALSE * ??? ST_Intersects(empty, empty) == FALSE * ??? ST_Disjoint(empty, empty) == FALSE * ??? ST_Disjoint(geometry, empty) == FALSE * ST_IsSimple(empty) == TRUE * ST_IsValid(empty) == TRUE ''Note:'' It might make sense to try to maintain the geometric truisms when specifying the semantics around ''empty'' - ie. things like: * intersects( A, B ) => !disjoint( A, B ) * A == B => intersects( A, B ) * contains( A, B ) && contains( B, A ) => A == B If we don't maintain these we will probably need to complicate logical comparisons with special cases for ''empty'' - it may be the case that this is necessary, but it would be nice if it just 'came out in the wash'. This suggests to me that perhaps: * ST_Intersects( empty, empty ) == TRUE * ST_Disjoint( empty, empty ) == FALSE * ST_Distance( empty, empty) == 0 * ST_DWithin( empty, empty, tolerance) == true