I am using javascript and I have GPS coordinates in the form of a string and I am trying to put those into the google.maps.LatLng(59.327383, 18.06747) format but am having trouble deciding how to do it. I have a variable:

GPSlocation = "(37.700421688980136, -81.84535319999998)"

and I need it to go into that google.maps.LatLng(num, num) format. How can I put this string in there?

Thanks!

I am using javascript and I have GPS coordinates in the form of a string and I am trying to put those into the google.maps.LatLng(59.327383, 18.06747) format but am having trouble deciding how to do it. I have a variable:

GPSlocation = "(37.700421688980136, -81.84535319999998)"

and I need it to go into that google.maps.LatLng(num, num) format. How can I put this string in there?

Thanks!

• javascript
• html
• google-maps-api-3
• gps

• I always laugh at the number of decimal places we get on lat/lon co-ords. Six DP is enough to pinpoint you to ten centimetres. I'm always amused when we get people insisting on eight or ten-digit co-ords. Your have even more than that, but that's more down to floating point inaccuracies than any kind of precision. – Spudley Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 7:51

2 Answers 2

You can use standard string operations to extract the values:

var GPSlocation = "(37.700421688980136, -81.84535319999998)";
var LatLng = GPSlocation.replace("(", "").replace(")", "").split(", ")
var Lat = parseFloat(LatLng[0]);
var Lng = parseFloat(LatLng[1]);

google.maps.LatLng(Lat, Lng)

You can create an Array from it (using JSON.parse), and then use apply to 'feed' the coordinates to the method:

GPSlocation = JSON.parse( "(37.700421688980136, -81.84535319999998)" 
                          .replace(/^\(/,'[')
                          .replace(/\)$/,']')
                        );
google.maps.LatLng.apply(null,GPSlocation);

Alternatively you can replace the brackets and use split to create an Array, and call the method LatLng the regular way. This method requires an extra conversion to Number of the Array values.

GPSlocation = "(37.700421688980136, -81.84535319999998)"
               .replace(/^\(|\)$/,'')
               .split(',');
google.maps.LatLng(+GPSlocation[0],+GPSlocation[1]);

To retrieve an Array of coordinates from the string, you could also use:

GPSlocation = ''.slice.call('(37.700421688980136, -81.84535319999998)',
                             1,this.length-1)
                       .split(',')
                       .map(function(a){return +a;});
google.maps.LatLng(GPSlocation[0],GPSlocation[1]);