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

I faced this question quite a while ago when i started with spacial programming. I read a book a while ago that led me to this.

//sql server has a really cool dll that deals with spacial data such like
//geography points and so on. 
//add this namespace
Using Microsoft.SqlServer.Types;

//SqlGeography.Point(dblLat, dblLon, srid)

var lat_lon_point = Microsoft.SqlServer.Types.SqlGeography.Point(lat, lon, 4326);

This is the best way when working in your application with spacial data. then to save the data use this in sql

CREATE TABLE myGeoTable
{
LatLonPoint GEOMETRY 
}

else, if you are using something else that isnt sql just convert the point to hexadecimal and store it. I know after a long time using spacial that this is the safest.