User`s guide

R2007b

16-10

Going forward from this release, the result is

>> deg2rad(180i)

ans =

0 + 3.1416i

Degrees-Minutes-Seconds Conversion Functions Are Obsolete and Error if

Used

The following functions, which accepted or produced double scalars to represent degrees,

minutes, and seconds now error when used, and will be removed completely from the

toolbox in a future release:

• deg2dm

• deg2dms

• dms2deg

• dms2dm

• dms2mat

• dms2rad

• mat2dms

• rad2dm

• rad2dms

The scalar DM and DMS encodings are being eliminated from the toolbox because they

were never used for internal computations, and always had the potential to generate

serious numerical errors if passed accidentally to functions that expected normal

latitude-longitude tuples. They also made the functions that accepted them less efficient

due to the need to convert from DM or DMS to fractional latitudes and longitudes before

processing the input data.

In every case, an alternative that does not use the old degrees-minutes-seconds scalar

encoding exists. See the following section on compatibility for replacements and

“New Functions for Degrees-Minutes-Seconds Conversions” on page 17-3 in the

V2.5 Release Notes for descriptions of replacement functions, and the compatibility

considerations below for descriptions of alternative syntaxes and expressions you can use

for degrees-minutes-seconds conversions.