[OSM-talk] Area tags in Overpass API

[Tobias Knerr]

On 22.03.2013 21:41, Dave Sutter wrote:
> There seems to be a polygon search which lets you specify an arbitrary
> bounding polygon. This should have the same function as a search for a
> closed way, given the proper polygon coordinates. This means either
> you can create the polygon yourself based on the coordinates of the
> way or it ought to be possible to create a search request for objects
> in a way without having to calculate those areas ahead of time.

A subsequent polygon query based on the way coordinates would indeed be
a possibility. For my specific use case, I could likely even work with a
bounding box query based on these coordinates, as I have code available
for filtering the resulting OSM data locally.

Both options have the disadvantage that they require a second,
independent query as far as I know. If Overpass were to perform that
fallback internally for closed ways and relations without an area
representation, or alternatively allow polygon or bounding box queries
based on OSM elements, it would fulfil my requirements.

Naturally, I'm not sure whether any of that would be equally suitable
for others' use cases.

Tobias