Geo Coordinates Parser

A Javascript function for reading a variety of coordinate formats and converting to decimal latitude and longitude. Builds on previous efforts and returns the verbatim coordinates and the decimal coordinates together in one object for convenience. Can be used to extract coordinates from longer strings. Also includes a function to test existing decimal coordinates against those from the converter.

##If you like this tool please star it on GitHub

Installation

npm install geo-coordinates-parser

Usage

const convert = require('geo-coordinates-parser');

OR

import convert from 'geo-coordinates-parser' //ES6, if you're using a bundler

THEN

let converted;
try {
  converted = convert('40° 26.7717, -79° 56.93172');
}
catch {
  /*we get here if the string is not valid coordinates or format is inconsistent between lat and long*/
}

OR add the number of decimal places you want (but be reasonable, see Coordinate Precision here) -- default is 5

try{
  let converted = convert(coordinatesString, integerDecimalPlaces)
  //do stuff with coordinates...
}
catch{
  //coordinates not valid
}

ALSO

converted.decimalLatitude; // 40.446195 ✓
converted.decimalLongitude; // -79.948862 ✓
converted.verbatimLatitude; // '40° 26.7717' ✓
converted.verbatimLongitude; // '-79° 56.93172' ✓

The returned object includes properties verbatimCoordinates, verbatimLatitude, verbatimLongitude, decimalLatitude, decimalLatitude, and decimalCoordinates.

Sometimes we may want to validate existing decimal coordinates against those returned from the converter to find errors. Because we're working with decimal numbers we must settle for values that are close enough (in this case equal up to six decimal places).

converted.closeEnough(yourDecimalCoordinatesToTest) //must be a numbers separated by ,

Supported formats

All formats (except the 'exotic formats') covered by npm coordinate-parser and the coordinate regex in this GitHub Gist, including the following:

• -23.3245° S / 28.2344° E
• 27deg 15min 45.2sec S 18deg 32min 53.7sec E
• 40° 26.7717 -79° 56.93172
• 18.24S 22.45E // read as degrees and minutes
• 27.15.45S 18.32.53E

...and others.

Formats used for testing can be be accessed with:

convert.formats

Please add coordinate formats that throw an error in the Github Issues.

Want to use it in the browser?

A ready bundled script is available in the source code, in the bundle directory, named geocoordsparser.js. Download, include it in a script tag in your html, and you'll have a function called convert() available in your environment.

Other implementations

There is an MS Excel plugin here. See the README for instructions. More to come...

License

MIT Licence

Acknowledgements

Support for development was provided by the Animal Demography Unit of the University of Cape Town, and the Natural Science Collections Facility.