Notes on input formats

geolucidate accepts a wide range of inputs containing degrees, minutes, and seconds or a decimal fraction of minutes. Degrees and seconds are optional; the precision of the output will be adjusted automatically if they are not present. However, the latitude and longitude must be of equal precision. Additionally, latitude and longitude must both be present, and in that order.

Additionally, the following conditions are placed on input:

• The input is case-insensitive.
• The latitude direction may come before or after the latitude, and must be one of “NORTH”, “SOUTH”, “N”, or “S”.
• The longitude direction may come before or after the longitude, and must be one of “EAST”, “WEST”, “E”, or “W”.
• Latitude and longitude directions must be in the same position: they can either precede or follow the values, but must not be mixed.
• A separator is not required between the latitude and longitude, but if present, it must be a space, forward slash, or comma. If a separator is present, a space may optionally be present before and after the separator.
• Degree values may be followed by a space or a degree mark, which must be one of the following values: º, °, ., -, DEGREES,.
• Minute values may be followed by a space or one of the following optional punctuation marks: ', ", ., MINUTES,.
• Second values may be followed by one of the following optional punctuation marks: ", ', SECONDS.
• ‘Seconds’ which are preceded by a decimal point, which are greater than 59, or which are three digits long will be treated as a decimal fraction of minutes; that is, they will be divided by 100 rather than 60. If a period is used to separate degrees and minutes, then any period present between the minutes and seconds is taken as a separator, rather than a decimal point. Several examples may help to clarify this point:
  • N51.33.9 is parsed as 51 degrees, 33 minutes, and 9 seconds, because a period is used to separate the degrees and minutes, and the value in the seconds position is less than 60.
  • N50.26.008 is parsed as 51 degrees, 26.008 minutes. This is because the ‘seconds’ value is three digits long.
  • 49-21.834N is parsed as 49 degrees, 21.834 minutes. Again, this is due to the presence of a decimal point and a three-digit ‘seconds’ value.
  • N53 35.48 is parsed as 53 degrees, 35.48 minutes. Despite the fact that the ‘seconds’ value is only two digits long and less than 60, the fact that there is no period used between the degrees and minutes is taken to mean that the period which is found between the minutes and ‘seconds’ is actually a decimal point.
• Degree marks and punctuation following minutes and seconds are only accepted if a degree mark is present following the latitude degrees. The effect of this is that the use of degree marks/punctuation must be consistent.
• Numeric values must be within sensible ranges; degrees greater than 90 for latitude or 180 for longitude are not accepted; nor are minutes or seconds (subject to the caveat above regarding decimal fractions of minutes) greater than 59.