Calculate distance between two latitude-longitude

Question

How do I calculate the distance between two points specified by latitude and longitude?

For clarification, I'd like the distance in kilometers; the points use the WGS84 system and I'd like to understand the relative accuracies of the approaches available.

Answer 1

In Mysql use the following function pass the parameters as using POINT(LONG,LAT)

CREATE FUNCTION `distance`(a POINT, b POINT)
 RETURNS double
    DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN

RETURN

GLength( LineString(( PointFromWKB(a)), (PointFromWKB(b)))) * 100000; -- To Make the distance in meters

END;

Answer 2

function getDistanceFromLatLonInKm(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2,units) {
  var R = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km
  var dLat = deg2rad(lat2-lat1);  // deg2rad below
  var dLon = deg2rad(lon2-lon1); 
  var a = 
    Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
    Math.cos(deg2rad(lat1)) * Math.cos(deg2rad(lat2)) * 
    Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2)
    ; 
  var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a)); 
  var d = R * c; 
  var miles = d / 1.609344; 

if ( units == 'km' ) {  
return d; 
 } else {
return miles;
}}

Chuck's solution, valid for miles also.

Answer 3

There could be a simpler solution, and more correct: The perimeter of earth is 40,000Km at the equator, about 37,000 on Greenwich (or any longitude) cycle. Thus:

pythagoras = function (lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
   function sqr(x) {return x * x;}
   function cosDeg(x) {return Math.cos(x * Math.PI / 180.0);}

   var earthCyclePerimeter = 40000000.0 * cosDeg((lat1 + lat2) / 2.0);
   var dx = (lon1 - lon2) * earthCyclePerimeter / 360.0;
   var dy = 37000000.0 * (lat1 - lat2) / 360.0;

   return Math.sqrt(sqr(dx) + sqr(dy));
};

I agree that it should be fine-tuned as, I myself said that it's an ellipsoid, so the radius to be multiplied by the cosine varies. But it's a bit more accurate. Compared with Google Maps and it did reduce the error significantly.

Answer 4

You can use the build in CLLocationDistance to calculate this:

CLLocation *location1 = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:latitude1 longitude:longitude1];
CLLocation *location2 = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:latitude2 longitude:longitude2];
[self distanceInMetersFromLocation:location1 toLocation:location2]

- (int)distanceInMetersFromLocation:(CLLocation*)location1 toLocation:(CLLocation*)location2 {
    CLLocationDistance distanceInMeters = [location1 distanceFromLocation:location2];
    return distanceInMeters;
}

In your case if you want kilometers just divide by 1000.

Answer 5

This link might be helpful to you, as it details the use of the Haversine formula to calculate the distance.

Excerpt:

This script [in Javascript] calculates great-circle distances between the two points – that is, the shortest distance over the earth’s surface – using the ‘Haversine’ formula.

function getDistanceFromLatLonInKm(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2) {
  var R = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km
  var dLat = deg2rad(lat2-lat1);  // deg2rad below
  var dLon = deg2rad(lon2-lon1); 
  var a = 
    Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
    Math.cos(deg2rad(lat1)) * Math.cos(deg2rad(lat2)) * 
    Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2)
    ; 
  var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a)); 
  var d = R * c; // Distance in km
  return d;
}

function deg2rad(deg) {
  return deg * (Math.PI/180)
}

Answer 6

This script [in PHP] calculates distances between the two points.

public static function getDistanceOfTwoPoints($source, $dest, $unit='K') {
        $lat1 = $source[0];
        $lon1 = $source[1];
        $lat2 = $dest[0];
        $lon2 = $dest[1];

        $theta = $lon1 - $lon2;
        $dist = sin(deg2rad($lat1)) * sin(deg2rad($lat2)) +  cos(deg2rad($lat1)) * cos(deg2rad($lat2)) * cos(deg2rad($theta));
        $dist = acos($dist);
        $dist = rad2deg($dist);
        $miles = $dist * 60 * 1.1515;
        $unit = strtoupper($unit);

        if ($unit == "K") {
            return ($miles * 1.609344);
        }
        else if ($unit == "M")
        {
            return ($miles * 1.609344 * 1000);
        }
        else if ($unit == "N") {
            return ($miles * 0.8684);
        } 
        else {
            return $miles;
        }
    }