MULTILINESTRING

MultiLineString is a geometric data type used in geographic information systems (GIS) to represent a collection of two or more line strings. It is used to model features composed of multiple separate line segments, such as a road network with gaps, a river with forks, or utility lines.

Each element of a MultiLineString is a LineString, defined as an ordered sequence of at least two coordinate positions. The line strings in a MultiLineString may be connected or disjoint; the overall geometry has a single feature with a common coordinate reference system (CRS).

In textual representations, WKT encodes as MULTILINESTRING((x1 y1, x2 y2,...),(x1' y1', ...)); GeoJSON encodes as a type of MultiLineString with coordinates arrays: [ [ [x,y], [x2,y2], ... ], [ [x',y'], ... ] ].

Common operations include computing total length by summing the lengths of each constituent LineString, and applying spatial predicates such as intersects or touches against other geometries. Editing workflows often build a MultiLineString by merging multiple line segments that belong to a single feature.

Supported by major GIS libraries and databases, including GEOS, JTS, PostGIS, SpatiaLite, and others, the MultiLineString type conforms to the OGC Simple Features specification. All constituent LineStrings share the same CRS and coordinate units, and the precision of coordinates affects geometric operations similarly to other geometry types.