Storing latitude and longitude

From: "Rodolfo J(dot) Paiz" <rpaiz(at)simpaticus(dot)com>
To: pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Storing latitude and longitude
Date: 2005-02-04 00:31:45
Message-ID: 1107477105.7053.15.camel@rodolfo.gt.factorrent.com
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Hi:

One of my tables will store latitude and longitude information. I've
checked and I cannot see a datatype for that (which is no surprise, and
no loss). However, I can think of three ways to store the data:

* Array field (degrees, minutes, seconds)
* Three integer fields
* Three numeric fields with up to 2 decimals each

Having one-second precision is good enough, so three integers will do.
Of course, ideally I'd have two integers and a numeric for the seconds
so I could have fractional seconds too.

Between separate fields and an array, first is an array possible? Can I
store that? If so, is there any performance or other benefit I should
know about?

Clearly this is not an important consideration (in fact I already
created the table with two integers and a numeric field), but I thought
I'd ask for the educational value of the discussion.

Cheers,

--
Rodolfo J. Paiz <rpaiz(at)simpaticus(dot)com>

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