Geometry Library

  1. Overview
  2. Spherical Geometry Concepts
    1. Distance and Area Functions
    2. Navigation Functions
  3. Geometry Encoding
  4. Polygon and Polyline Functions
    1. containsLocation()
    2. isLocationOnEdge()

Overview

The concepts within this document refer to features only available within the google.maps.geometry library. This library is not loaded by default when you load the Maps Javascript API but must be explicitly specified through use of a libraries bootstrap parameter. For more information, see the Libraries Overview.

The Maps JavaScript API geometry library provides utility functions for the computation of geometric data on the surface of the Earth. The library includes three namespaces:

  • spherical contains spherical geometry utilities allowing you to compute angles, distances and areas from latitudes and longitudes.
  • encoding contains utilities for encoding and decoding polyline paths according to the Encoded Polyline Algorithm.
  • poly contains utility functions for computations involving polygons and polylines.

The google.maps.geometry library does not contain any classes; instead, the library contains static methods on the above namespaces.

Spherical Geometry Concepts

The images within the Maps JavaScript API are two-dimensional and "flat." The Earth, however, is three-dimensional, and is often approximated as either an oblate spheroid or more as a sphere. Within the Maps API we use a sphere, and to represent the Earth on a two-dimensional flat surface — such as your computer screen — the Maps API uses a projection.

Within 2D projections, appearances can sometimes be deceiving. Because the map projection necessarily requires some distortion, simple Euclidian geometry often is not applicable. For example, the shortest distance between two points on a sphere is not a straight line, but a great circle (a type of geodesic), and the angles that make up a triangle on the surface of a sphere add up to more than 180 degrees.

Because of these differences, geometric functions on a sphere (or on its projection) necessitate using Spherical Geometry to calculate such constructs as distance, heading, and area. Utilities to calculate these spherical geometric constructs are contained within the Maps API's google.maps.geometry.spherical namespace. This namespace provides static methods for computing scalar values from spherical coordinates (latitudes and longitudes).

Distance and Area Functions

The distance between two points is the length of the shortest path between them. This shortest path is called a geodesic. On a sphere all geodesics are segments of a great circle. To compute this distance, call computeDistanceBetween(), passing it two LatLng objects.

You may instead use computeLength() to calculate the length of a given path if you have several locations.

Distance results are expressed in meters.

To compute the area (in square meters) of a polygonal area, call computeArea(), passing the array of LatLng objects defining a closed loop.

When navigating on a sphere, a heading is the angle of a direction from a fixed reference point, usually true north. Within the Google Maps API, a heading is defined in degrees from true north, where headings are measured clockwise from true north (0 degrees). You may compute this heading between two locations with the computeHeading() method, passing it two from and to LatLng objects.

Given a particular heading, an origin location, and the distance to travel (in meters), you can calculate the destination coordinates using computeOffset().

Given two LatLng objects and value between 0 and 1, you may also calculate a destination between them using the interpolate() method, which performs spherical linear interpolation between the two locations, where the value indicates the fractional distance to travel along the path from the origin to the destination.

The following example creates two polylines when you click two points on the map — one geodesic and one "straight" line connecting the two locations — and computes the heading for travelling between the two points:

TypeScript

// This example requires the Geometry library. Include the libraries=geometry
// parameter when you first load the API. For example:
// <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=geometry">

let marker1: google.maps.Marker, marker2: google.maps.Marker;
let poly: google.maps.Polyline, geodesicPoly: google.maps.Polyline;

function initMap(): void {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement,
    {
      zoom: 4,
      center: { lat: 34, lng: -40.605 },
    }
  );

  map.controls[google.maps.ControlPosition.TOP_CENTER].push(
    document.getElementById("info") as HTMLElement
  );

  marker1 = new google.maps.Marker({
    map,
    draggable: true,
    position: { lat: 40.714, lng: -74.006 },
  });

  marker2 = new google.maps.Marker({
    map,
    draggable: true,
    position: { lat: 48.857, lng: 2.352 },
  });

  const bounds = new google.maps.LatLngBounds(
    marker1.getPosition() as google.maps.LatLng,
    marker2.getPosition() as google.maps.LatLng
  );

  map.fitBounds(bounds);

  google.maps.event.addListener(marker1, "position_changed", update);
  google.maps.event.addListener(marker2, "position_changed", update);

  poly = new google.maps.Polyline({
    strokeColor: "#FF0000",
    strokeOpacity: 1.0,
    strokeWeight: 3,
    map: map,
  });

  geodesicPoly = new google.maps.Polyline({
    strokeColor: "#CC0099",
    strokeOpacity: 1.0,
    strokeWeight: 3,
    geodesic: true,
    map: map,
  });

  update();
}

function update() {
  const path = [
    marker1.getPosition() as google.maps.LatLng,
    marker2.getPosition() as google.maps.LatLng,
  ];

  poly.setPath(path);
  geodesicPoly.setPath(path);

  const heading = google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeHeading(
    path[0],
    path[1]
  );

  (document.getElementById("heading") as HTMLInputElement).value =
    String(heading);
  (document.getElementById("origin") as HTMLInputElement).value = String(
    path[0]
  );
  (document.getElementById("destination") as HTMLInputElement).value = String(
    path[1]
  );
}

declare global {
  interface Window {
    initMap: () => void;
  }
}
window.initMap = initMap;
index.ts

JavaScript

// This example requires the Geometry library. Include the libraries=geometry
// parameter when you first load the API. For example:
// <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=geometry">
let marker1, marker2;
let poly, geodesicPoly;

function initMap() {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
    zoom: 4,
    center: { lat: 34, lng: -40.605 },
  });

  map.controls[google.maps.ControlPosition.TOP_CENTER].push(
    document.getElementById("info"),
  );
  marker1 = new google.maps.Marker({
    map,
    draggable: true,
    position: { lat: 40.714, lng: -74.006 },
  });
  marker2 = new google.maps.Marker({
    map,
    draggable: true,
    position: { lat: 48.857, lng: 2.352 },
  });

  const bounds = new google.maps.LatLngBounds(
    marker1.getPosition(),
    marker2.getPosition(),
  );

  map.fitBounds(bounds);
  google.maps.event.addListener(marker1, "position_changed", update);
  google.maps.event.addListener(marker2, "position_changed", update);
  poly = new google.maps.Polyline({
    strokeColor: "#FF0000",
    strokeOpacity: 1.0,
    strokeWeight: 3,
    map: map,
  });
  geodesicPoly = new google.maps.Polyline({
    strokeColor: "#CC0099",
    strokeOpacity: 1.0,
    strokeWeight: 3,
    geodesic: true,
    map: map,
  });
  update();
}

function update() {
  const path = [marker1.getPosition(), marker2.getPosition()];

  poly.setPath(path);
  geodesicPoly.setPath(path);

  const heading = google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeHeading(
    path[0],
    path[1],
  );

  document.getElementById("heading").value = String(heading);
  document.getElementById("origin").value = String(path[0]);
  document.getElementById("destination").value = String(path[1]);
}

window.initMap = initMap;
index.js
View example

Try Sample

Encoding Methods

Paths within the Maps JavaScript API are often specified as an Array of LatLng objects. However, passing around such an array is often bulky. You may instead use Google's polyline encoding algorithm to compress a given path, which you can later decompress through decoding.

The geometry library contains an encoding namespace for utilities to encode and decode polylines.

The static method encodePath() encodes the given path. You may pass either an array of LatLngs or an MVCArray (which is returned by Polyline.getPath()).

To decode an encoded path, call decodePath() passing the method the encoded string.

The following example displays a map of Oxford, Mississippi. Clicking on the map adds a point to a polyline. As the polyline is constructed, its encoding appears underneath.

TypeScript

// This example requires the Geometry library. Include the libraries=geometry
// parameter when you first load the API. For example:
// <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=geometry">

function initMap(): void {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement,
    {
      zoom: 14,
      center: { lat: 34.366, lng: -89.519 },
    }
  );
  const poly = new google.maps.Polyline({
    strokeColor: "#000000",
    strokeOpacity: 1,
    strokeWeight: 3,
    map: map,
  });

  // Add a listener for the click event
  google.maps.event.addListener(map, "click", (event) => {
    addLatLngToPoly(event.latLng, poly);
  });
}

/**
 * Handles click events on a map, and adds a new point to the Polyline.
 * Updates the encoding text area with the path's encoded values.
 */
function addLatLngToPoly(
  latLng: google.maps.LatLng,
  poly: google.maps.Polyline
) {
  const path = poly.getPath();

  // Because path is an MVCArray, we can simply append a new coordinate
  // and it will automatically appear
  path.push(latLng);

  // Update the text field to display the polyline encodings
  const encodeString = google.maps.geometry.encoding.encodePath(path);

  if (encodeString) {
    (document.getElementById("encoded-polyline") as HTMLInputElement).value =
      encodeString;
  }
}

declare global {
  interface Window {
    initMap: () => void;
  }
}
window.initMap = initMap;
index.ts

JavaScript

// This example requires the Geometry library. Include the libraries=geometry
// parameter when you first load the API. For example:
// <script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=YOUR_API_KEY&libraries=geometry">
function initMap() {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
    zoom: 14,
    center: { lat: 34.366, lng: -89.519 },
  });
  const poly = new google.maps.Polyline({
    strokeColor: "#000000",
    strokeOpacity: 1,
    strokeWeight: 3,
    map: map,
  });

  // Add a listener for the click event
  google.maps.event.addListener(map, "click", (event) => {
    addLatLngToPoly(event.latLng, poly);
  });
}

/**
 * Handles click events on a map, and adds a new point to the Polyline.
 * Updates the encoding text area with the path's encoded values.
 */
function addLatLngToPoly(latLng, poly) {
  const path = poly.getPath();

  // Because path is an MVCArray, we can simply append a new coordinate
  // and it will automatically appear
  path.push(latLng);

  // Update the text field to display the polyline encodings
  const encodeString = google.maps.geometry.encoding.encodePath(path);

  if (encodeString) {
    document.getElementById("encoded-polyline").value = encodeString;
  }
}

window.initMap = initMap;
index.js
View example

Try Sample

Polygon and Polyline functions

The geometry library's poly namespace contains utility functions that determine whether a given point is inside or near a polygon or polyline.

containsLocation()

containsLocation(point:LatLng, polygon:Polygon)

To find whether a given point falls within a polygon, pass the point and the polygon to google.maps.geometry.poly.containsLocation(). The functions returns true if the point is within the polygon or on its edge.

The following code writes 'true' to the browser console if the user's click falls within the defined triangle; otherwise, it writes 'false'. 

function initialize() {
  var mapOptions = {
    zoom: 5,
    center: new google.maps.LatLng(24.886, -70.269),
    mapTypeId: 'terrain'
  };

  var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'),
      mapOptions);

  var bermudaTriangle = new google.maps.Polygon({
    paths: [
      new google.maps.LatLng(25.774, -80.190),
      new google.maps.LatLng(18.466, -66.118),
      new google.maps.LatLng(32.321, -64.757)
    ]
  });

  google.maps.event.addListener(map, 'click', function(event) {
    console.log(google.maps.geometry.poly.containsLocation(event.latLng, bermudaTriangle));
  });
}

google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);

Another version of this code draws a blue triangle on the map if the click falls within the Bermuda Triangle, and a red circle otherwise:

View example

isLocationOnEdge()

isLocationOnEdge(point:LatLng, poly:Polygon|Polyline, tolerance?:number)

To determine whether a point falls on or near a polyline, or on or near the edge of a polygon, pass the point, the polyline/polygon, and optionally a tolerance value in degrees to google.maps.geometry.poly.isLocationOnEdge(). The function returns true if the distance between the point and the closest point on the line or edge falls within the specified tolerance. The default tolerance value is 10-9 degrees.

function initialize() {
  var myPosition = new google.maps.LatLng(46.0, -125.9);

  var mapOptions = {
    zoom: 5,
    center: myPosition,
    mapTypeId: 'terrain'
  };

  var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'),
      mapOptions);

  var cascadiaFault = new google.maps.Polyline({
    path: [
      new google.maps.LatLng(49.95, -128.1),
      new google.maps.LatLng(46.26, -126.3),
      new google.maps.LatLng(40.3, -125.4)
    ]
  });

  cascadiaFault.setMap(map);

  if (google.maps.geometry.poly.isLocationOnEdge(myPosition, cascadiaFault, 10e-1)) {
    alert("Relocate!");
  }
}

google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initialize);