Best way to store positions

[mikemcc]

Having started my server-side programming with the tutorial on how to
create kml using mysql and php, I am storing all my placemarks'
positions in lat and long. However I'm wondering whether it's best to
store positions as one long-lat value because sometimes positions of
places are made available only as a combined value.

Any advice please on that ?

Also, can anyone provide Excel formulae to convert long,lat,altitude
like
-79.02144217999999,41.65201754000002,0
into separate long and lat values ?

When the above value is in cell B, I have got the long values in cell
C by using
=LEFT($B1;SEARCH(",";$B1)-1)
and the lat values by first getting the lat,alt value in cell D with
=MID($B1;SEARCH(",";$B1)+1;LEN($B1)-LEN($C1))
and then I got the lat value using
=LEFT($D1;SEARCH(",";$D1)-1)
but the results are text and I can't use Excel help's method of
converting text to numbers.

Perhaps I should use php ?

[Maarten L]

I think you should store lat and long seperately: sometimes it is
necesarry to reference a place as long,lat instead of lat,long. Also,
if you want to make calculations and conversions, you'll need seperate
values.
Your second question doesn't really belong on this forum, I think the
answer to your question depends on your version of Excel and your OS.
Using php instead of Excel depends on your knowledge of both.