Code for parsing lat-long coordinates in "various" formats
Note: perhaps it would be better to integrate this with a more full featured lib like:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/LatLon23
But that one does not seem to support parsing unknown formats at this point -- and it's GPL, and perhaps a littel more complex and structured than it needs to be.
Decimal degrees (easy):
23.43 -45.21
Decimal Degrees with quadrant:
23.43 N 45.21 W
Or with spelled out:
23.43 North 45.21 West
(note that all of the cardinal directions are not case-sensitive)
Degrees, decimal minutes: (now it starts getting tricky!):
23° 25.800' -45° 12.600'
or:
23 25.800' -45 12.600'
or:
23° 25.8' N 45° 12.6' West
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: (really fun!!!):
23° 25' 48.0" -45° 12' 36.0"
or:
23d 25' 48.0" -45d 12' 36.0"
or:
23° 25' 48.0" North 45° 12' 36.0" S
or -- lots of other combinations!
For a more complete list, see the tests
This uses a pretty "stupid" algorithm -- it assumes that all formats will be something like:
[-][space] degrees [separator] minutes [separator] seconds [separator] [N[orth]|S[outh|E[ast]|W[est]]
But that actually is pretty darn robust!
If you have other formats you want to be able to parse, please contribute tests! -- And ideally a patch if the current code doesn't work.