The 'X' in the latitude format symbolises the designator symbol “+” or “-” and should be placed prior to the first number. Latitudes north of the equator are positive and shall be designated by use of the plus sign (+), latitudes south of the equator are negative and shall be designated by use of the minus sign (-). The equator shall be designated by use of the plus sign (+).

The 'd' should be used to represent the degrees as a one or two digit number. The 'm' should be used to represent minutes as a two digit number (i.e. a place holding zero should be used for minute values under 10 for clarity). The 's' should be used to represent seconds (before the decimal) and decimal seconds (after the decimal), as a two digit number (i.e. a place holding zero should be used for second and decimal second values under 10 for clarity). Zero may also be a valid value, such as where there is no minute value but there is a second value.

As a minimum the designator and a one digit representation for degrees must be populated. The remaining brackets are optional, however, if seconds or decimal seconds are to be used the preceeding values must also be populated (i.e. seconds cannot be populated without minutes being populated, and decimal seconds cannot be populated without a seconds value).

Usage example: a traditional degrees, minutes & seconds representation for latitude of -40° 09' 09.05" should be represented as a string format -400909.05 (Note: this is not a decimal representation, but a concatenation of the degree, minute, second and decimal second values).

The ISO 6709 standard recommends leading zeroes for degree values less than 100, however this has not been implemented in the METeOR standard, in accordance with METeOR business rules.

Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand 2008. AS/NZS ISO6709:2008—Standard representation of latitude, longitude and altitude for geographic point locations. Sydney/Wellington: Standards Australia/Standards NZ.