Compass Direction Conversion with Matlab

Compass direction conversion from cardinals to degrees and backward.

The present codes are a set of two Matlab functions named “cardinal2deg” and “deg2cardinal”, designed to convert compass directions between cardinals and degrees. The first function allows the user to input cardinal directions (e.g., N, NNE, NE, etc.) and obtain the corresponding degree values (e.g., 0, 22.5, 45, etc.). Conversely, the second function allows conversion from degree values to the corresponding cardinal directions, offering a bidirectional conversion capability. The functions are valuable tools that facilitate the compass direction conversions for geographic data processing applications.

Three examples are given to clarify the usage of the two functions. For convenience, the input and output arguments are given at the beginning of the functions.