clamped arccosine to [-1,1] to prevent rounding errors in geoDistance

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@
 
 - Fixed collection index validator to allow expressions with parenthesis in the optional `WHERE` clause.
 
+- Clamped arccosine to [-1,1] in the Harvesine formula for the `geoDistance()` filter function to workaround edge case related to float rounding errors for some coordinates.
+
 - Bumped `golang.org/x/*` dependencies to silence security scanners ([#7829](https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/discussions/7829)).
 
 

tools/search/filter_test.go

@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ func TestFilterDataBuildExpr(t *testing.T) {
 			"geoDistance function",
 			"geoDistance(1,2,3,4) < 567",
 			false,
-			"(6371 * acos(cos(radians({:TEST})) * cos(radians({:TEST})) * cos(radians({:TEST}) - radians({:TEST})) + sin(radians({:TEST})) * sin(radians({:TEST})))) < {:TEST}",
+			"(6371 * acos(min(1, max(-1, cos(radians({:TEST})) * cos(radians({:TEST})) * cos(radians({:TEST}) - radians({:TEST})) + sin(radians({:TEST})) * sin(radians({:TEST})))))) < {:TEST}",
 		},
 	}
 

tools/search/token_functions.go

@@ -49,11 +49,14 @@ var TokenFunctions = map[string]func(
 
 		return &ResolverResult{
 			NullFallback: NullFallbackDisabled,
-			Identifier: `(6371 * acos(` +
+			// the clamping is to prevent floating point rounding errors for values like
+			// "1.0002" that could occur for example when comparing identical points
+			// (see the NULL note for arccosine in https://sqlite.org/lang_mathfunc.html#overview)
+			Identifier: `(6371 * acos(min(1, max(-1, ` +
 				`cos(radians(` + latA + `)) * cos(radians(` + latB + `)) * ` +
 				`cos(radians(` + lonB + `) - radians(` + lonA + `)) + ` +
 				`sin(radians(` + latA + `)) * sin(radians(` + latB + `))` +
-				`))`,
+				`))))`,
 			Params: mergeParams(resolvedArgs[0].Params, resolvedArgs[1].Params, resolvedArgs[2].Params, resolvedArgs[3].Params),
 		}, nil
 	},

tools/search/token_functions_test.go

@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ func TestTokenFunctionsGeoDistance(t *testing.T) {
 			baseTokenResolver,
 			&ResolverResult{
 				NullFallback: NullFallbackDisabled,
-				Identifier:   `(6371 * acos(cos(radians({:latA})) * cos(radians({:latB})) * cos(radians({:lonB}) - radians({:lonA})) + sin(radians({:latA})) * sin(radians({:latB}))))`,
+				Identifier:   `(6371 * acos(min(1, max(-1, cos(radians({:latA})) * cos(radians({:latB})) * cos(radians({:lonB}) - radians({:lonA})) + sin(radians({:latA})) * sin(radians({:latB}))))))`,
 				Params: map[string]any{
 					"lonA": 1,
 					"latA": 2,
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ func TestTokenFunctionsGeoDistance(t *testing.T) {
 			baseTokenResolver,
 			&ResolverResult{
 				NullFallback: NullFallbackDisabled,
-				Identifier:   `(6371 * acos(cos(radians({:latA})) * cos(radians({:latB})) * cos(radians({:lonB}) - radians({:lonA})) + sin(radians({:latA})) * sin(radians({:latB}))))`,
+				Identifier:   `(6371 * acos(min(1, max(-1, cos(radians({:latA})) * cos(radians({:latB})) * cos(radians({:lonB}) - radians({:lonA})) + sin(radians({:latA})) * sin(radians({:latB}))))))`,
 				Params: map[string]any{
 					"lonA": "null",
 					"latA": 2,
@@ -178,34 +178,64 @@ func TestTokenFunctionsGeoDistanceExec(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Error("Expected geoDistance token function to be registered.")
 	}
 
-	result, err := fn(
+	scenarios := []struct {
-		func(t fexpr.Token) (*ResolverResult, error) {
+		name     string
-			placeholder := "t" + security.PseudorandomString(5)
+		coords   []string // [lonA, latA, lonB, latB]
-			return &ResolverResult{Identifier: "{:" + placeholder + "}", Params: map[string]any{placeholder: t.Literal}}, nil
+		expected string
+	}{
+		{
+			"distinct points",
+			[]string{
+				"23.23033854945808",
+				"42.713146090563384",
+				"23.44920680886216",
+				"42.7078484153991",
+			},
+			"17.89",
+		},
+		{
+			"identical points (rounding check with 8 lat)",
+			[]string{"0", "8", "0", "8"}, // 8 is an example latitude where rounding happens to result in > 1.0
+			"0.00",
+		},
+		{
+			"identical points (rounding check with 45 lat)",
+			[]string{"0", "45", "0", "45"}, // 45 is an example latitude where rounding happens to result in > 1.0
+			"0.00",
 		},
-		fexpr.Token{Literal: "23.23033854945808", Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
-		fexpr.Token{Literal: "42.713146090563384", Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
-		fexpr.Token{Literal: "23.44920680886216", Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
-		fexpr.Token{Literal: "42.7078484153991", Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
-	)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 
-	column := []float64{}
+	for _, s := range scenarios {
-	err = testDB.NewQuery("select " + result.Identifier).Bind(result.Params).Column(&column)
+		t.Run(s.name, func(t *testing.T) {
-	if err != nil {
+			result, err := fn(
-		t.Fatal(err)
+				func(t fexpr.Token) (*ResolverResult, error) {
-	}
+					placeholder := "t" + security.PseudorandomString(5)
+					return &ResolverResult{Identifier: "{:" + placeholder + "}", Params: map[string]any{placeholder: t.Literal}}, nil
+				},
+				fexpr.Token{Literal: s.coords[0], Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
+				fexpr.Token{Literal: s.coords[1], Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
+				fexpr.Token{Literal: s.coords[2], Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
+				fexpr.Token{Literal: s.coords[3], Type: fexpr.TokenNumber},
+			)
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
 
-	if len(column) != 1 {
+			column := []float64{}
-		t.Fatalf("Expected exactly 1 column value as result, got %v", column)
+			err = testDB.NewQuery("select " + result.Identifier).Bind(result.Params).Column(&column)
-	}
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
 
-	expected := "17.89"
+			if len(column) != 1 {
-	distance := fmt.Sprintf("%.2f", column[0])
+				t.Fatalf("Expected exactly 1 column value as result, got %v", column)
-	if distance != expected {
+			}
-		t.Fatalf("Expected distance value %s, got %s", expected, distance)
+
+			distance := fmt.Sprintf("%.2f", column[0])
+			if distance != s.expected {
+				t.Fatalf("Expected distance value %s, got %s", s.expected, distance)
+			}
+		})
 	}
 }