Double or decimal for latitude/longitude values in C#

Question

What is the best data type to use when storing geopositional data in C#? I would use decimal for it\'s exactness, but operations on decimal floating point numbers are slower

Answer 1

Go for double, there are several reasons.

• Trigonometric functions are available only for double
• Precision of double (range of 100 nanometers) is far beyond anything you'll ever require for Lat/Lon values
• GeoCoordinate Class and third-Party modules (e.g. DotSpatial) also use double for coordinates