geokdtree
GeoKDTree
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.

Documentation
- Docs: https://connor-makowski.github.io/geokdtree/geokdtree.html
- Git Repo: https://github.com/connor-makowski/geokdtree
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)
# Find the closest point itself
closest_point = geo_kd_tree.closest_point(test_point)
print(f"Closest index (from original data) is {closest_idx}")
print(f"Closest point (from original data) is {closest_point}")
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
Dockerfileto test different python versions.
1""" 2# GeoKDTree 3[](https://badge.fury.io/py/geokdtree) 4[](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) 5[](https://pypi.org/project/geokdtree/) 6<!-- [](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 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) 47# Find the closest point itself 48closest_point = geo_kd_tree.closest_point(test_point) 49 50print(f"Closest index (from original data) is {closest_idx}") 51print(f"Closest point (from original data) is {closest_point}") 52``` 53 54## Why Use GeoKDTree? 55 56GeoKDTree is designed to solve one focused problem extremely well: 57 58**Fast nearest-neighbor lookup for latitude/longitude data at scale.** 59 60It 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. 61 62### Extremely Fast Lookups 63 64Once constructed, nearest-neighbor queries consistently complete in **tens of nanoseconds**, even with very large datasets. 65 66Typical benchmark results from the included tests: 67 68| Number of Points | Build Time | Query Time | 69| ---------------: | ---------: | ---------: | 70| 1,000 | ~1.7 ms | ~0.02 ms | 71| 10,000 | ~25 ms | ~0.05 ms | 72| 100,000 | ~350 ms | ~0.05 ms | 73| 1,000,000 | ~6.8 s | ~0.07 ms | 74 75This makes GeoKDTree well-suited for: 76 77* Real-time proximity queries 78* Matching incoming coordinates against large reference datasets 79* High-throughput geospatial APIs 80* Pre-filtering before more expensive geospatial calculations 81 82> Exact timings depend on hardware, Python version, and data distribution. These values reflect typical results from the repository’s benchmarks. 83 84### Built for Geographic Coordinates 85 86GeoKDTree works directly with `(latitude, longitude)` pairs. 87 88You do **not** need to: 89 90* Project coordinates into planar space 91* Use heavyweight GIS libraries 92* Maintain custom spatial indexing code 93 94Just pass geographic coordinates and query. 95 96### Simple API, Minimal Overhead 97 98GeoKDTree intentionally keeps the API small and focused. 99 100* Build once from a list of coordinates 101* Query nearest neighbors with a single method call 102* Retrieve indices or points directly from your original dataset 103 104There are no external C extensions or heavy dependencies, keeping installation and deployment simple. 105 106### Deterministic and Predictable Performance 107 108* Tree construction scales at approximately `O(n log n)` 109* Query performance scales at approximately `O(log n)` 110* No probabilistic approximations 111* No background indexing or caching 112 113This predictability is valuable for production systems where latency and reproducibility matter. 114 115## Supported Features 116 117See: https://connor-makowski.github.io/geokdtree/geokdtree.html 118 119## Contributing 120 121Issues, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome. 122Please open an issue to discuss changes or enhancements. 123 124# Development 125## Running Tests, Prettifying Code, and Updating Docs 126 127Make sure Docker is installed and running on a Unix system (Linux, MacOS, WSL2). 128 129- Create a docker container and drop into a shell 130 - `./run.sh` 131- Run all tests (see ./utils/test.sh) 132 - `./run.sh test` 133- Prettify the code (see ./utils/prettify.sh) 134 - `./run.sh prettify` 135- Update the docs (see ./utils/docs.sh) 136 - `./run.sh docs` 137 138- Note: You can and should modify the `Dockerfile` to test different python versions. 139 140""" 141 142try: 143 from geokdtree.cpp import GeoKDTree, KDTree 144 145 # print("Successfully imported from geokdtree.cpp. Using optimized implementation.") 146except ImportError: 147 # TODO: Find way to warn users if they were not able to build / import the C++ extension, as this will result in significantly slower performance. 148 # print("Unable to import geokdtree.cpp, falling back to pure Python implementation. This may result in significantly slower performance.") 149 from geokdtree.geokdtree import GeoKDTree 150 from geokdtree.kdtree import KDTree