Why do I get coordinates in QGIS3 as nnnnnn; nnnnnn instead of Lat/Lon when I upload a shapefile supposedly projected in WGS84

Question

I received a couple of shapefiles made in France supposed to be projected in WGS84. When I upload them to QGIS3, it recognizes them as WGS84. However, their coordinates are displayed in a strange format with 6 digits. My shapefiles projected in WGS84 display well with the usual Lat/Lon degrees format.

Anybody has any ideas of what might be going on?

The CRS layer data in the shapefiles I received is exactly the same as that of my own:

WGS 84 WKT GEODCRS["WGS 84", DATUM["World Geodetic System 1984", ELLIPSOID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563, LENGTHUNIT["metre",1]]], PRIMEM["Greenwich",0, ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]], CS[ellipsoidal,2], AXIS["geodetic latitude (Lat)",north, ORDER[1], ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]], AXIS["geodetic longitude (Lon)",east, ORDER[2], ANGLEUNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433]], AREA["World"], BBOX[-90,-180,90,180], ID["EPSG",4326]] Proj4 +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +no_defs Extensão -180.00, -90.00, 180.00, 90.00

I am baffled and stuck...

I received a couple of shapefiles made in France supposed to be projected in WGS84. They aren't in WGS84, they're in a different coordinate system. You'll need to find out which one. See this question: Layers with same coordinate system should align/overlap in ArcMap but do not? and this one: (https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/7839/identifying-coordinate-system-of-shapefile-when-unknown) — Dan C, Jul 25 '20 at 19:47

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 26 '20 at 07:29

3

There is a setting to choose in witch units the coordinate are displayed.

Go to Project>Properties... then go to the "general" tab, here the "Coordinate and Bearing display" section lets you choose between map unit and degrees (decimal, DM or DMS)

That being said if your shapefile is indeed in EPSG:4326 the map unit should be degree and display the same coordinate as decimal degree.

I suspect that your shapefile has been assigned a wrong CRS, you may want to check if the coordinate you have match one of the common projected CRS for your area and if it does assign this CRS to your shapefile

edited Jul 26 '20 at 07:29

PolyGeo

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answered Jul 25 '20 at 21:57

J.R

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Thank you all. Found it. Took some detective work but identified the layer's CRS as ETRF_1989_UTM_Zone_29N, seemingly well used in France. Had to look into the type of coordinate numbers and make different trials with a reference layer until I found the correct match. It would be great if someone would develop a tool in QGIS to determine the CRS from the layer analysis. – user25446 Jul 26 '20 at 16:52

Why do I get coordinates in QGIS3 as nnnnnn; nnnnnn instead of Lat/Lon when I upload a shapefile supposedly projected in WGS84

1 Answers1