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I'm designing a table in SQL Server 2008 that will store a list of users and a Google Maps co-ordinate (longitude & latitude).
Will I need two fields, or can it be done with 1?
What's the best (or most common) data-type to use for storing this kind of data?
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Storing Latitude & Longitude data as Floats or Decimal This is one of the most fundamental ways of storing geocoordinate data. Latitude & longitude values can be represented & stored in a SQL database using decimal points (Decimal degrees) rather than degrees (or Degrees Minutes Seconds).
To summarise: The most precise available option is DOUBLE . The most common seen type used is DECIMAL(8,6)/(9,6) .
precision you should use DECIMAL . Latitudes range from -90 to +90 (degrees), so DECIMAL(10,8) is ok for that, but longitudes range from -180 to +180 (degrees) so you need DECIMAL(11,8) .
Fair Warning! Before taking the advice to use the GEOGRAPHY type, make sure you are not planning on using Linq or Entity Framework to access the data because it's not supported (as of November 2010) and you will be sad!
Update Jul 2017
For those reading this answer now, it is obsolete as it refers to backdated technology stack. See comments for more details.
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