Distance Calculation

General Q&A
1

What is the best way to calculate the distance between two nodes? For instance I have the Longitude and Latitude of both points, but want to calculate the distance between these two points.

2

It depends, do you want:

  1. The line of sight distance.
  2. The travel distance.

Line of sight distance

If you'd like the straight line distance, then you could use the haversine formula. Here is a JavaScript example from here:

function haversineDistance(coords1, coords2, isMiles) {

  function toRad(x) {
    return x * Math.PI / 180;
  }

  var lon1 = coords1[0];
  var lat1 = coords1[1];

  var lon2 = coords2[0];
  var lat2 = coords2[1];

  var R = 6371; // km

  var x1 = lat2 - lat1;
  var dLat = toRad(x1);
  var x2 = lon2 - lon1;
  var dLon = toRad(x2)
  var a = Math.sin(dLat / 2) * Math.sin(dLat / 2) +
    Math.cos(toRad(lat1)) * Math.cos(toRad(lat2)) *
    Math.sin(dLon / 2) * Math.sin(dLon / 2);
  var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1 - a));
  var d = R * c;

  if(isMiles) d /= 1.60934;

  return d;
}

Travel distance

If you would like the travel distance, then you could use the Google Maps API. The easiest is to use the @google/maps npm module. Here is an example:

const google_maps = require("@google/maps");
const googleMapsClient = google_maps.createClient({
  key: "your-key",
  Promise: Promise
});

const origin = "-33.888187, 18.634691";
const destination = "-34.425036, 21.282965";

export async function run() {
  let mapClient = await googleMapsClient
    .distanceMatrix({
      origins: [origin],
      destinations: [destination],
      mode: "driving",
      units: "metric"
    })
    .asPromise()
    .then(response => {
      if (response && response.status === 200) {
        const data = response.json.rows[0].elements[0];
        console.log(`data received: ${JSON.stringify(data, null, 2)}`);
        const distance = data.distance.text;
        const duration = data.duration.text;
        const duration_in_seconds = data.duration.value;
        console.log(
          `Distance ${distance} Duration ${duration} (${duration_in_seconds}seconds)`
        );
        return {
          distance: distance,
          duration: duration,
          duration_in_seconds: duration_in_seconds
        };
      } else {
        console.log(`No data, status ${JSON.stringify(response)}`);
      }
    })
    .catch(err => {
      console.log(err);
    });
}
1 Like
3

Be mindful that the Google Maps API is subject to Terms & Conditions. An alternative is Mapbox that provides similar functionality with more lenient terms.

4

Thank you Captain Responsible