What datatype to use when storing latitude and longitude data in SQL databases?
I would use a decimal with the proper precision for your data.
We use float, but any flavor of numeric with 6 decimal places should also work.
For latitudes use: Decimal(8,6)
, and longitudes use: Decimal(9,6)
If you're not used to precision and scale parameters, here's a format string visual:
Latitude and Longitude
##.######
and ###.######
To 6 decimal places should get you to around ~10cm of accuracy on a coordinate.