Geo distance MySQL

Question

To search nearest locations to given locations, order by distance

1. Should I use float or Point?
2. Should I pre-compute value of cos/sin/sqrt http://www.mova

Answer 1

We are using double to store latitude and longitude. In addition we precomute (by triggers) all values which are precomputable when looking at one point only. I currently don't have access to the formula we are using, will add this later. This is optimized for an optimal speed / precision balance.

For defined area searches (give me all points within x km) we additionally store the lat/lng value multiplied with 1e6 (1,000,000) so we can limit into a square by comparing integer ranges which is lightning fast e.g.

lat BETWEEN 1290000 AND 2344000
AND
lng BETWEEN 4900000 AND 4910000
AND
distformularesult < 20

EDIT:

Here's the formular and precalculation of values of the current place in PHP.

WindowSize is a value you have to play with, it's degrees factor 1e6, used to narrow down the possible results in a square around the center, speeds up result finding - dont forget this should be at least your search radius size.

$paramGeoLon = 35.0000 //my center longitude
$paramGeoLat = 12.0000 //my center latitude

$windowSize = 35000;   

$geoLatSinRad = sin( deg2rad( $paramGeoLat ) );
$geoLatCosRad = cos( deg2rad( $paramGeoLat ) );
$geoLonRad    = deg2rad( $paramGeoLon );

$minGeoLatInt = intval( round( ( $paramGeoLat * 1e6 ), 0 ) ) - $windowSize;
$maxGeoLatInt = intval( round( ( $paramGeoLat * 1e6 ), 0 ) ) + $windowSize;
$minGeoLonInt = intval( round( ( $paramGeoLon * 1e6 ), 0 ) ) - $windowSize;
$maxGeoLonInt = intval( round( ( $paramGeoLon * 1e6 ), 0 ) ) + $windowSize;

Searching all rows within a specific range of my center

SELECT
          `e`.`id`
        , :earthRadius * ACOS ( :paramGeoLatSinRad * `e`.`geoLatSinRad` + :paramGeoLatCosRad * `m`.`geoLatCosRad` * COS( `e`.`geoLonRad` - :paramGeoLonRad ) ) AS `geoDist`

FROM
          `example` `e`
WHERE
        `e`.`geoLatInt` BETWEEN :paramMinGeoLatInt AND :paramMaxGeoLatInt
        AND
        `e`.`geoLonInt` BETWEEN :paramMinGeoLonInt AND :paramMaxGeoLonInt
HAVING `geoDist` < 20
ORDER BY 
        `geoDist`

The formular has a quite good accuracy (below a metre, depending where you are and what distance is between the point)

I've precalculated the following values in my database table example

CREATE TABLE `example` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `geoLat` double NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `geoLon` double NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',

  # below is precalculated with a trigger
  `geoLatInt` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `geoLonInt` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `geoLatSinRad` double NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `geoLatCosRad` double NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `geoLonRad` double NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  KEY `example_cIdx_geo` (`geoLatInt`,`geoLonInt`,`geoLatSinRad`,`geoLatCosRad`,`geoLonRad`)  
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC

Example trigger

DELIMITER $
CREATE TRIGGER 'example_before_insert' BEFORE INSERT ON `example` FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    SET NEW.`geoLatInt` := CAST( ROUND( NEW.`geoLat` * 1e6, 0 ) AS SIGNED INTEGER );
    SET NEW.`geoLonInt` := CAST( ROUND( NEW.`geoLon` * 1e6, 0 ) AS SIGNED INTEGER );
    SET NEW.`geoLatSinRad` := SIN( RADIANS( NEW.`geoLat` ) );
    SET NEW.`geoLatCosRad` := COS( RADIANS( NEW.`geoLat` ) );
    SET NEW.`geoLonRad` := RADIANS( NEW.`geoLon` );
END$

CREATE TRIGGER 'example_before_update' BEFORE UPDATE ON `example` FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    IF NEW.geoLat <> OLD.geoLat OR NEW.geoLon <> OLD.geoLon
    THEN
        SET NEW.`geoLatInt` := CAST( ROUND( NEW.`geoLat` * 1e6, 0 ) AS SIGNED INTEGER );
        SET NEW.`geoLonInt` := CAST( ROUND( NEW.`geoLon` * 1e6, 0 ) AS SIGNED INTEGER );
        SET NEW.`geoLatSinRad` := SIN( RADIANS( NEW.`geoLat` ) );
        SET NEW.`geoLatCosRad` := COS( RADIANS( NEW.`geoLat` ) );
        SET NEW.`geoLonRad` := RADIANS( NEW.`geoLon` );
    END IF;
END$
DELIMITER ;

Questions? Otherwise have fun :)