Latitude & longitude universal format [duplicate]

Question

I don't know yet what database I'll use in the future - MySql, Postgresql, Sqlite3 or anything else. At the moment I'm using a database N.

What's more or less universal approach for storing latitude & longitude? Varchar? Or big integer? Or float?

Should I store them in 2 columns or one?

Answer 1

Neither. The right answer is to use the GIS Spatial Type for a point. All of those databases have their own implementation.

PostgreSQL's PostGIS is easily the most full featured GIS implementation,

CREATE TABLE foo(
  gid  int GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY,
  geog geography(POINT)
);

I would highly suggest going PostgreSQL, and checking out the book PostGIS in Action if you're new to this. See also,

• My comparison of MySQL and PostgreSQL's PostGIS for spatial
• MySQL Spatial Data Types (which suck btw),
• SQLite Spatial Extension SpatiaLite