geokdtree

GeoKDTree

PyPI version License: MIT PyPI Downloads

GeoKDTree

Ultra-fast nearest-neighbor lookup for latitude/longitude data

GeoKDTree is a lightweight, high-performance spatial indexing library for Python designed to find the nearest geographic coordinate from massive datasets in nanoseconds.

It wraps a highly optimized KD-Tree with a geographic interface, allowing you to work directly with (latitude, longitude) pairs. No projections, no external dependencies, and no heavy GIS stacks.

geokdtree

Documentation

Installation

pip install geokdtree

Getting Started

from geokdtree import GeoKDTree

example_points = [
    (34.0522, -118.2437),  # Los Angeles
    (40.7128, -74.0060),   # New York
    (37.7749, -122.4194),  # San Francisco
    (51.5074, -0.1278),    # London
    (48.8566, 2.3522),     # Paris
]

geo_kd_tree = GeoKDTree(points=example_points)

test_point = (47.6062, -122.3321)  # Seattle
# Find the index of the closest point in the original dataset
closest_idx = geo_kd_tree.closest_idx(test_point) #=> 2
# Find the closest point itself
closest_point = geo_kd_tree.closest_point(test_point) #=> (37.7749, -122.4194)

Why Use GeoKDTree?

GeoKDTree is designed to solve one focused problem extremely well:

Fast nearest-neighbor lookup for latitude/longitude data at scale.

It is worth noting that the closest point found may not be the true closest point, but should be very close for most practical applications. See KD-Tree limitations for more details.

Extremely Fast Lookups

Once constructed, nearest-neighbor queries consistently complete in tens of nanoseconds, even with very large datasets.

Typical benchmark results from the included tests:

Number of Points Build Time Query Time
1,000 ~1.7 ms ~0.02 ms
10,000 ~25 ms ~0.05 ms
100,000 ~350 ms ~0.05 ms
1,000,000 ~6.8 s ~0.07 ms

This makes GeoKDTree well-suited for:

  • Real-time proximity queries
  • Matching incoming coordinates against large reference datasets
  • High-throughput geospatial APIs
  • Pre-filtering before more expensive geospatial calculations

Exact timings depend on hardware, Python version, and data distribution. These values reflect typical results from the repository’s benchmarks.

Built for Geographic Coordinates

GeoKDTree works directly with (latitude, longitude) pairs.

You do not need to:

  • Project coordinates into planar space
  • Use heavyweight GIS libraries
  • Maintain custom spatial indexing code

Just pass geographic coordinates and query.

Simple API, Minimal Overhead

GeoKDTree intentionally keeps the API small and focused.

  • Build once from a list of coordinates
  • Query nearest neighbors with a single method call
  • Retrieve indices or points directly from your original dataset

There are no external C extensions or heavy dependencies, keeping installation and deployment simple.

Deterministic and Predictable Performance

  • Tree construction scales at approximately O(n log n)
  • Query performance scales at approximately O(log n)
  • No probabilistic approximations
  • No background indexing or caching

This predictability is valuable for production systems where latency and reproducibility matter.

Supported Features

See: https://connor-makowski.github.io/geokdtree/geokdtree.html

Contributing

Issues, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss changes or enhancements.

Development

Running Tests, Prettifying Code, and Updating Docs

Make sure Docker is installed and running on a Unix system (Linux, MacOS, WSL2).

  • Create a docker container and drop into a shell
    • ./run.sh
  • Run all tests (see ./utils/test.sh)
    • ./run.sh test
  • Prettify the code (see ./utils/prettify.sh)
    • ./run.sh prettify
  • Update the docs (see ./utils/docs.sh)

    • ./run.sh docs
  • Note: You can and should modify the Dockerfile to test different python versions.

  1"""
  2# GeoKDTree
  3[![PyPI version](https://badge.fury.io/py/geokdtree.svg)](https://badge.fury.io/py/geokdtree)
  4[![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
  5[![PyPI Downloads](https://pepy.tech/badge/geokdtree)](https://pypi.org/project/geokdtree/)
  6<!-- [![PyPI Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/geokdtree.svg?label=PyPI%20downloads)](https://pypi.org/project/geokdtree/) -->
  7
  8# GeoKDTree
  9
 10## Ultra-fast nearest-neighbor lookup for latitude/longitude data
 11
 12**GeoKDTree** is a lightweight, high-performance spatial indexing library for Python designed to find the *nearest geographic coordinate* from massive datasets in nanoseconds.
 13
 14It wraps a highly optimized KD-Tree with a geographic interface, allowing you to work directly with `(latitude, longitude)` pairs. No projections, no external dependencies, and no heavy GIS stacks.
 15
 16![geokdtree](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/connor-makowski/geokdtree/main/static/geokdtree.png)
 17
 18### Documentation
 19
 20- Docs: https://connor-makowski.github.io/geokdtree/geokdtree.html
 21- Git Repo: https://github.com/connor-makowski/geokdtree
 22
 23## Installation
 24
 25```bash
 26pip install geokdtree
 27```
 28
 29## Getting Started
 30
 31```python
 32from geokdtree import GeoKDTree
 33
 34example_points = [
 35    (34.0522, -118.2437),  # Los Angeles
 36    (40.7128, -74.0060),   # New York
 37    (37.7749, -122.4194),  # San Francisco
 38    (51.5074, -0.1278),    # London
 39    (48.8566, 2.3522),     # Paris
 40]
 41
 42geo_kd_tree = GeoKDTree(points=example_points)
 43
 44test_point = (47.6062, -122.3321)  # Seattle
 45# Find the index of the closest point in the original dataset
 46closest_idx = geo_kd_tree.closest_idx(test_point) #=> 2
 47# Find the closest point itself
 48closest_point = geo_kd_tree.closest_point(test_point) #=> (37.7749, -122.4194)
 49```
 50
 51## Why Use GeoKDTree?
 52
 53GeoKDTree is designed to solve one focused problem extremely well:
 54
 55**Fast nearest-neighbor lookup for latitude/longitude data at scale.**
 56
 57It is worth noting that the closest point found may not be the true closest point, but should be very close for most practical applications. See KD-Tree limitations for more details.
 58
 59### Extremely Fast Lookups
 60
 61Once constructed, nearest-neighbor queries consistently complete in **tens of nanoseconds**, even with very large datasets.
 62
 63Typical benchmark results from the included tests:
 64
 65| Number of Points | Build Time | Query Time |
 66| ---------------: | ---------: | ---------: |
 67|            1,000 |    ~1.7 ms |   ~0.02 ms |
 68|           10,000 |     ~25 ms |   ~0.05 ms |
 69|          100,000 |    ~350 ms |   ~0.05 ms |
 70|        1,000,000 |     ~6.8 s |   ~0.07 ms |
 71
 72This makes GeoKDTree well-suited for:
 73
 74* Real-time proximity queries
 75* Matching incoming coordinates against large reference datasets
 76* High-throughput geospatial APIs
 77* Pre-filtering before more expensive geospatial calculations
 78
 79> Exact timings depend on hardware, Python version, and data distribution. These values reflect typical results from the repository’s benchmarks.
 80
 81### Built for Geographic Coordinates
 82
 83GeoKDTree works directly with `(latitude, longitude)` pairs.
 84
 85You do **not** need to:
 86
 87* Project coordinates into planar space
 88* Use heavyweight GIS libraries
 89* Maintain custom spatial indexing code
 90
 91Just pass geographic coordinates and query.
 92
 93### Simple API, Minimal Overhead
 94
 95GeoKDTree intentionally keeps the API small and focused.
 96
 97* Build once from a list of coordinates
 98* Query nearest neighbors with a single method call
 99* Retrieve indices or points directly from your original dataset
100
101There are no external C extensions or heavy dependencies, keeping installation and deployment simple.
102
103### Deterministic and Predictable Performance
104
105* Tree construction scales at approximately `O(n log n)`
106* Query performance scales at approximately `O(log n)`
107* No probabilistic approximations
108* No background indexing or caching
109
110This predictability is valuable for production systems where latency and reproducibility matter.
111
112## Supported Features
113
114See: https://connor-makowski.github.io/geokdtree/geokdtree.html
115
116## Contributing
117
118Issues, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome.
119Please open an issue to discuss changes or enhancements.
120
121# Development
122## Running Tests, Prettifying Code, and Updating Docs
123
124Make sure Docker is installed and running on a Unix system (Linux, MacOS, WSL2).
125
126- Create a docker container and drop into a shell
127    - `./run.sh`
128- Run all tests (see ./utils/test.sh)
129    - `./run.sh test`
130- Prettify the code (see ./utils/prettify.sh)
131    - `./run.sh prettify`
132- Update the docs (see ./utils/docs.sh)
133    - `./run.sh docs`
134
135- Note: You can and should modify the `Dockerfile` to test different python versions.
136
137"""
138
139try:
140    from geokdtree.cpp import GeoKDTree, KDTree
141except ImportError:
142    from geokdtree.geokdtree import GeoKDTree
143    from geokdtree.kdtree import KDTree