Store circles in Postgres geometry field - postgresql

Question

Ideally it would be something like this, but WKT doesn't have circle type.
ST_GeomFromText('CIRCLE(10 20, 10)',4326)
Although, circle type is listed among geometric types,
circle <(x,y),r> (center point and radius)
I wonder if it's possible to use circle type directly in sql:
update <table>
set the_geom = circle '((10, 20),10)'::geometry
where id = <id>;
But it says SQL Error [42846]: ERROR: cannot cast type circle to geometry.
Using ST_Buffer for storing circles is a kludge so I don't want to use it.
Alternative solution could be jsonb + geojson, but it doesn't support circles either.
UPD: There is my table structure. Currently I'm using longitude/latitude/radius, but I'd like to use either geo_json or the_geom. How could GeoJSON and WKT not support a circle?
CREATE SEQUENCE my_table_id_seq INCREMENT BY 1 MINVALUE 1 START 1;
CREATE TABLE my_table (
id INT NOT NULL,
longitude NUMERIC(10, 7) DEFAULT NULL,
latitude NUMERIC(10, 7) DEFAULT NULL,
radius INT DEFAULT NULL,
geo_json JSONB,
the_geom Geometry DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY KEY(id)
);

Answer 1

Circle is native for postgresql as you can see on the manual documentation.
Geometry is a type related to PostGis Extension, and doesnt have CIRCLE but use polygons with lot of points instead.
Function starting with ST_ are also Postgis functions and work only with Postgis geometry or geography data type
SQL DEMO:
create table points ( p POINT not null);
create table lines ( l LINE not null);
create table circles ( c CIRCLE not null);
insert into points (p) values ( POINT(1.2, 123.1) );
insert into lines (l) values ( LINE(POINT(1.2, 123.1), POINT(-5, -123)) );
insert into circles (c) values ( CIRCLE(POINT(1.2, 123.1), 10) );
SELECT * FROM points;
SELECT * FROM lines;
SELECT * FROM circles;

Answer 2

The GIST index allows you to work efficiently with circles. If that's the only thing you intend to store in this table, then you can do it like this:
CREATE TABLE my_table (
id INT NOT NULL,
longitude NUMERIC(10, 7) DEFAULT NULL,
latitude NUMERIC(10, 7) DEFAULT NULL,
radius INT DEFAULT NULL,
geo_json JSONB
);
CREATE INDEX idx_my_table ON my_table USING GIST ( circle( point( latitude, longitude ), radius ));
As others have pointed out, you cannot mix this table with GEOMETRY types, which are incompatible.
In order to utilize the index above, you must express your WHERE criteria in similar terms: circle( point( latitude, longitude ), radius ) or '<( latitude, longitude ), radius >'::circle and use the operators that GIST knows about ... which are listed below. I'm aware that projecting the Euclidian shape of a circle onto a non-Euclidian spherical geometry has limitations, but for index purposes it should work OK with care.
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/gist-builtin-opclasses.html