Files

Calling GeographicLib C++ library from Octave/MATLAB

The Octave/MATLAB package geographiclib provides a native Octave/MATLAB implementation of a subset of GeographicLib. This is also available via the MATLAB Central Package geographiclib

It is also possible to call the C++ GeographicLib library directly from Octave and MATLAB. This gives you access to the full range of GeographicLib's capabilities.

In order to make use of this facility, it is necessary to write some interface code. The files in this directory provide a sample of such interface code. This example solves the inverse geodesic problem for ellipsoids with arbitrary flattening. (The code geoddistance.m does this as native Matlab code; but it is limited to ellipsoids with a smaller flattening.)

For full details on how to write the interface code, see

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/write-cc-mex-files.html

To compile the interface code, start Octave or MATLAB and run, e.g.,

mex -setup C++
help geographiclibinterface
geographiclibinterface
help geodesicinverse
geodesicinverse([40.6, -73.8, 51.6, -0.5])
ans =

   5.1199e+01   1.0782e+02   5.5518e+06

The first command allows you to select the compiler to use (which should be the same as that used to compile GeographicLib).

These routines just offer a simple interface to the corresponding C++ class. Use the help function to get documentation,

help geodesicinverse

Unfortunately, the help function does not work for compiled functions in Octave; in this case, just list the .m file, e.g.,

type geodesicinverse.m