Latitude and Longitude FORMATS

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Typical Latitude and Longitude Formats are DMS, DM, or D

1. DMS: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds
N45°13'3" W123°58'34.2"
2. DM: Degrees, Minutes
N45°13.0500' W123°58.5700'
3. D: Degrees also called DecimalDegrees
45.21750 -123.97617

Some people choose to follow the coordinate number with the hemisphere designator like this:

1. DMS: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds
45°13'3"N 123°58'34.2"W
2. DM: Degrees, Minutes
45°13.0500'N 123°58.5700'W

My personal preference is to precede the coordinate number with the hemisphere designator.

Note that the decimal degree example did not use alphabetical hemisphere designators:

D: Degrees also called DecimalDegrees
45.21750 -123.97617

Latitudes North of the equator are positive +
Latitudes South of the equator are negative -
The above latitude would be north of the equator.

Longitudes East of the Prime Meridian are positive +
Longitudes West of the Prime Meridian are negative -

Note: in the absence of a symbol implies positive +.


The Degree Symbol ° is not found on the keyboard. Most programs that let you enter coordinates usually allow you to skip entering the degree symbol e.g. N45 13'3" will be interpreted as N45°13'3"

The minute symbol is a single quote: ' Since it is found on the keyboard you should always use it to indicate minutes when minutes are used in your coordinate format.
The second symbol is a double quote: " Since it is found on the keyboard you should always use it to indicate seconds when seconds are used in your coordinate format.

If you absolutely want to or need to include the degree symbol you have several options.
1. You can simply copy it from a another place that uses it and paste it where you want it. This ° degree symbol was copied and pasted. Problem here is you have to know a place where you can copy it from.
2. On a PC: Open your Character Map, find the symbol, select it, and copy it then paste it like this: °
This is what your Character Map looks like:


The Character Map can be found in: All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character map

3. If the document you are editing allows html markup you can use the special entity for the degree symbol:
Name Code: °
Number Code: °
Either the name code or the number code will work. The name code is usually easier to remember.

To understand more about how the earth is divided by hemispheres see the Earth's Hemisphere Dividers educational pages and click "next" to go from one to the other.

Hope you find this post helpful.