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Elasticsearch: The Definitive Guide [2.x] » Geolocation » Geo Points » Lat/Lon Formats
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Lat/Lon Formatsedit

With the location field defined as a geo_point, we can proceed to index documents containing latitude/longitude pairs, which can be formatted as strings, arrays, or objects:

PUT /attractions/restaurant/1
{
  "name":     "Chipotle Mexican Grill",
  "location": "40.715, -74.011" 
}

PUT /attractions/restaurant/2
{
  "name":     "Pala Pizza",
  "location": { 
    "lat":     40.722,
    "lon":    -73.989
  }
}

PUT /attractions/restaurant/3
{
  "name":     "Mini Munchies Pizza",
  "location": [ -73.983, 40.719 ] 
}

A string representation, with "lat,lon".

An object representation with lat and lon explicitly named.

An array representation with [lon,lat].

Everybody gets caught at least once: string geo-points are "latitude,longitude", while array geo-points are [longitude,latitude]—the opposite order!

Originally, both strings and arrays in Elasticsearch used latitude followed by longitude. However, it was decided early on to switch the order for arrays in order to conform with GeoJSON.

The result is a bear trap that captures all unsuspecting users on their journey to full geolocation nirvana.

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