What MySQL data type should be used for Latitude/Longitude with 8 decimal places?

Question

MySQL supports Spatial data types and Point is a single-value type which can be used. Example:

CREATE TABLE `buildings` (
  `coordinate` POINT NOT NULL,
  /* Even from v5.7.5 you can define an index for it */
  SPATIAL INDEX `SPATIAL` (`coordinate`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;

/* then for insertion you can */
INSERT INTO `buildings` 
(`coordinate`) 
VALUES
(POINT(40.71727401 -74.00898606));

in laravel used decimal column type for migration

$table->decimal('latitude', 10, 8);
$table->decimal('longitude', 11, 8);

for more information see available column type

Additionally, you will see that float values are rounded.

// e.g: given values 41.0473112,29.0077011

float(11,7) | decimal(11,7)
---------------------------
41.0473099  | 41.0473112
29.0077019  | 29.0077011

Do not use float... It will round your coordinates, resulting in some strange occurrences.

Use decimal

I believe the best way to store Lat/Lng in MySQL is to have a POINT column (2D datatype) with a SPATIAL index.

CREATE TABLE `cities` (
  `zip` varchar(8) NOT NULL,
  `country` varchar (2) GENERATED ALWAYS AS (SUBSTRING(`zip`, 1, 2)) STORED,
  `city` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
  `centre` point NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`zip`),
  KEY `country` (`country`),
  KEY `city` (`city`),
  SPATIAL KEY `centre` (`centre`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;


INSERT INTO `cities` (`zip`, `city`, `centre`) VALUES
('CZ-10000', 'Prague', POINT(50.0755381, 14.4378005));