"Select By Location" in ArcGIS desktop has 15 options for the spatial selection method. The SQL ST_Geometry functions inside the RDBMS, specifically Oracle, have at least the same number of spatial methods/functions. When writting SQL spatial queries, how does one know if the results are correct? One way is to perform the same spatial query by location in ArcGIS desktop. Then you can compare the same number of rows inside the RDBMS with the results in ArcGIS desktop. The results should/need to be the same when using the RDBMS . However, documentation is not available showing the equivalent SQL function(s) that will return the same results from ArcGIS desktop. The idea is to have ESRI's developers (SDE team and ArcObject team) produce a document/table/diagram showing the bidirectional mapping for spatial queries in ArcGIS desktop and SQL. This will allow accuarate results when using the RDBMS spatial functions.