v.what(1)

📦
version 8.4.2 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 v.what — GRASS GIS User's Manual 💖

okay bestie, welcome to v.what, straight outta the GRASS GIS User's Manual ✨ this one is a little icon and it does exactly one thing and it does it well: you point at a spot on a vector map and it tells you what's there. no cap. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

v.what — Queries a vector map at given locations. 🗺️💅

🌸 KEYWORDS 🌸

vector, querying, position 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

v.what
v.what --help
v.what [-dagjm] map=name[,name,...]  [layer=string[,string,...]]
[type=string[,string,...]]  coordinates=east,north  [distance=float]
[columns=name[,name,...]]   [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🎀 Flags:

  • -d — Print topological information (debugging) 🔍
  • -a — Print attribute information 📋
  • -g — Print the stats in shell script style 🐚
  • -j — Print the stats in JSON 🧾
  • -m — Print multiple features if overlapping features are found 👯
  • --help — Print usage summary 🙋‍♀️
  • --verbose — Verbose module output 🗣️
  • --quiet — Quiet module output 🤫
  • --ui — Force launching GUI dialog 🖥️

🦋 Parameters:

  • map=name[,name,...] [required] — Name of vector map(s) 🗺️
  • layer=string[,string,...] — Layer number or name (’-1’ for all layers). A single vector map can be connected to multiple database tables. This number determines which table to use. When used with direct OGR access this is the layer name. Default: -1
  • type=string[,string,...] — Input feature type. Options: point, line, boundary, centroid, area, face, kernel Default: point,line,area,face
  • coordinates=east,north [required] — Coordinates for query. ’-’ for standard input 📍
  • distance=float — Query threshold distance. Default: 0
  • columns=name[,name,...] — Name of attribute column(s). Default: all columns

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

v.what outputs the category number value(s) associated with user-specified location(s) in user-specified vector map layer(s). 💫

fr fr, this module was derived from the d.what.vect module by removing all interactive code and modification of the output for easy parsing. and the way that it's built for parsing?? obsessed. 🫶 Using the -g flag generates script-style output which is easily parsable — literally the moment your shell script bestie has been waiting for. 🐚✨

🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

North Carolina sample dataset example:

Query polygon at given position:

v.what zipcodes_wake coordinates=637502.25,221744.25

Find closest hospital to given position within given distance (search radius):

v.what hospitals coordinates=542690.4,204802.7 distance=2000000
not me dropping exact coordinates like it's a pin on the group chat 🏥📍 periodt.

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

d.what.rast, d.what.vect, v.rast.stats, v.vect.stats, v.what.rast, v.what.rast3, v.what.vect 💖

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Trevor Wiens Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 🇨🇦

🧚 SOURCE CODE 🧚

Available at: v.what source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:41:33 2026 🕰️

Main index | Vector index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual

and that's the whole page bestie!! 💅 this was GRASS 8.4.2, footer date Saturday Jan 17 05:41:33 2026, © 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, from the GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual — mwah, slay, go query something iconic 🎀✨🦋💖

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