proper/best type for storing latitude and longitude

Question

In a system level programming language like C, C++ or D, what is the best type/encoding for storing latitude and longitude?

The options I see are:

• IEEE

Answer 1

A Java program for comuting max rounding error in meters from casting lat/long values into Float/Double:

import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
import com.javadocmd.simplelatlng.*;
import com.javadocmd.simplelatlng.util.*;

public class MaxError {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Float flng = 180f;
    Float flat = 0f;
    LatLng fpos = new LatLng(flat, flng);
    double flatprime = Float.intBitsToFloat(Float.floatToIntBits(flat) ^ 1);
    double flngprime = Float.intBitsToFloat(Float.floatToIntBits(flng) ^ 1);
    LatLng fposprime = new LatLng(flatprime, flngprime);

    double fdistanceM = LatLngTool.distance(fpos, fposprime, LengthUnit.METER);
    System.out.println("Float max error (meters): " + fdistanceM);

    Double dlng = 180d;
    Double dlat = 0d;
    LatLng dpos = new LatLng(dlat, dlng);
    double dlatprime = Double.longBitsToDouble(Double.doubleToLongBits(dlat) ^ 1);
    double dlngprime = Double.longBitsToDouble(Double.doubleToLongBits(dlng) ^ 1);
    LatLng dposprime = new LatLng(dlatprime, dlngprime);

    double ddistanceM = LatLngTool.distance(dpos, dposprime, LengthUnit.METER);
    System.out.println("Double max error (meters): " + ddistanceM);
  }
}

Output:

Float max error (meters): 1.7791213425235692
Double max error (meters): 0.11119508289500799