v.profile - GRASS GIS manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: v.profile: Vector map profiling tool
Keywords: vector, profile, transect

## NAME

v.profile - Vector map profiling tool

## KEYWORDS

vector, profile, transect

## SYNOPSIS

v.profile
v.profile --help
v.profile [-cz] input=name [type=string[,string,...]] [where=sql_query] [layer=string] [output=string] [separator=character] [dp=integer] buffer=float [map_output=name] [coordinates=east,north[,east,north,...]] [profile_map=name] [profile_where=sql_query] [profile_layer=integer] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

### Flags:

-c
  Do not print column names
-z
  Do not print 3D vector data (z values)
  Only affects 3D vectors
--overwrite
  Allow output files to overwrite existing files
--help
  Print usage summary
--verbose
  Verbose module output
--quiet
  Quiet module output
--ui
  Force launching GUI dialog

### Parameters:

input=name [required]
  Name of input vector map
  Or data source for direct OGR access
type=string[,string,...]
  Input feature type
  Options: point, line
  Default: point,line
where=sql_query
  WHERE conditions of SQL statement without 'where' keyword
  Example: income < 1000 and population >= 10000
layer=string
  Layer number or name
  Use features only from specified layer
  Default: 1
output=string
  Path to output text file or - for stdout
  Default: -
separator=character
  Field separator
  Special characters: pipe, comma, space, tab, newline
  Default: pipe
dp=integer
  Number of significant digits
  Options: 0-32
  Default: 2
buffer=float [required]
  Buffer (tolerance) for points in map units
  How far points can be from sampling line
  Default: 10
map_output=name
  Name for profile line and buffer output map
  Profile line and buffer around it will be written
coordinates=east,north[,east,north,...]
  Coordinates for profiling line nodes
  Specify profiling line vertexes and nodes
profile_map=name
  Profiling line map
  Vector map containing profiling line
profile_where=sql_query
  WHERE conditions for input profile line map
  Use to select only one line from profiling line map
profile_layer=integer
  Profiling line map layer
  Default: 1

## DESCRIPTION

v.profile prints out distance and attributes of points/lines along a profiling line. Distance is calculated from the first profiling line coordinate pair or from the beginning of vector line.
The buffer (tolerance) parameter sets how far point can be located from a profiling line and still be included in the output data set.
The output map option can be used to visually check which points are profiled. The buffer (tolerance) setting does not affect lines. Lines are sampled at their crossing point with profiling line.

By default Z values are printed if input vector is a 3D map. It can be disabled with the -z flag.
The profiling line can be provided as N,E coordinate pairs or from an input vector map. As a profiling line must be a single line, the user should use the profile_where parameter to select a single line from a profile input map if it contains multiple vector features.

## NOTES

Currently the module can profile only points and lines (including 3D ones). Areas and other complex features are not supported. If in future users can provide reasonable examples how area sampling should work and why it is important, area (or any other feature type) sampling can be added.

Due to bugs in GRASS native buffering algorithms, this module for now depends on GEOS and will not function if GRASS is compiled without GEOS. This restriction will be removed as soon as GRASS native buffer generation is fixed.

## EXAMPLES

List all geonames along part of road NC-96 (NC Basic dataset). The output will be stored in a file for later usage. We will use comma as delimiter and three numbers after decimal separator for distance. Output file will contain data for all points, that are within 500 m range to profiling line.

    v.profile input=geonames@PERMANENT output=/home/user/NC_96_geonames.csv\
      separator=comma dp=3 buffer=500 profile_map=roadsmajor@PERMANENT profile_where=cat=56

    # Now lets see the output:
    cat NC_96_geonames.csv
    Number,Distance,cat,GEONAMEID,NAME,ASCIINAME,ALTERNATEN,FEATURECLA,FEATURECOD,COUNTRYCOD,CC2,ADMIN1,POPULATION,ELEVATION,GTOPO30,TIMEZONE,MODIFICATI,PPLKEY,SRC_ID,MAINT_ID
    1,360.719,26881,4482019,"New Zebulon Elementary School","New Zebulon Elementary School","","S","SCH","US","","NC",0,106,91,"America/Iqaluit","2006-01-15 00:00:00",0,0,0
    2,846.806,22026,4476596,"Little River, Township of","Little River, Township of","","A","ADMD","US","","NC",0,0,91,"America/Iqaluit","2006-01-15 00:00:00",0,0,0
    3,2027.918,16681,4470608,"Hendricks Pond","Hendricks Pond","","H","RSV","US","","NC",0,0,91,"America/Iqaluit","2006-01-15 00:00:00",0,0,0
    4,2027.918,16690,4470622,"Hendricks Dam","Hendricks Dam","","S","DAM","US","","NC",0,0,91,"America/Iqaluit","2006-01-15 00:00:00",0,0,0
    5,2999.214,39338,4496159,"Union Chapel","Union Chapel","","","","US","","NC",0,0,96,"America/Iqaluit","2006-01-15 00:00:00",0,0,0
    6,3784.992,43034,4500325,"Zebulon Airport","Zebulon Airport","","S","AIRP","US","","NC",0,108,98,"America/Iqaluit","2006-01-15 00:00:00",0,0,0

Create river valley crossection and provide river marker (Spearfish dataset):

    # Take elevation samples
    r.profile input=elevation.dem@PERMANENT output=/home/user/elevation.profile \
      profile=600570.27364,4920613.41838,600348.034348,4920840.38617

    # Now get distance to place where river marker should be set
    v.profile input=streams@PERMANENT output=/home/user/river_profile.csv \
      east_north=600570.27364,4920613.41838,600348.034348,4920840.38617

## BUGS

Strings are enclosed in double quotes ", still quotes within string are not escaped.

Output does not contain Vector CAT values. Only way how to get CAT value is from the attribute table.

If sampled feature (point, line) contains multiple attribute entries (has multiple CAT values), only the first one is reported. If this is a limitation in some practical use case, a feature request in GRASS GIS issue tracker should be opened.

## SEE ALSO

r.profile, Linear Referencing System

## AUTHOR

Maris Nartiss

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: v.profile source code (history)

Accessed: Wednesday Jun 03 04:20:47 2026

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