H3 Bindings to Node using N-API
To install this package, you need several development tools available: git, gyp, make, cmake, and a C compiler (gcc or clang). Once those are available, simply
yarn add h3-node
-- or --
npm i h3-nodeThe 1.X.Y versions released before have varying stages of completeness of the API. From version 3.2.0 and on the major and minor versions will match the upstream C Implementation's major and minor versions, while the patch version will increment independently, including fixes for the bindings themselves as well as fixes from upstream.
h3-node is a drop-in replacement for H3-js. You can use the H3-js API reference for the available methods and the official H3 documentation to fully understand the purposes of the methods. Below is an abbreviated usage of every available method.
const h3 = require('h3-node')
const h3index = h3.latLngToCell(37.77, -122.43, 9)
const h3center = h3.cellToLatLng(h3index)
const h3outline = h3.cellToBoundary(h3index)
const h3area = h3.cellArea(h3index, h3.UNITS.m2)
const res = h3.getResolution(h3index)
const baseCell = h3.getBaseCellNumber(h3index)
const valid = h3.isValidCell(h3index)
const resIsClassIII = h3.isResClassIII(h3index)
const isPentagon = h3.isPentagon(h3index)
const faces = h3.getIcosahedronFaces(h3Index)
const neighbors = h3.gridDisk(h3index, 1)
const threeRings = h3.gridDiskDistances(h3index, 3)
const ring2Away = h3.gridRingUnsafe(h3index, 2)
const index2 = h3.latLngToCell(38.88, -122.34, 9)
const hexLine = h3.gridPathCells(h3index, index2)
const hexDistance = h3.gridDistance(h3index, index2)
const coords = h3.cellToLocalIj(h3index, index2)
const index2again = h3.localIjToCell(h3index, coords)
const parent = h3.cellToParent(h3index, 8)
const immediateChildren = h3.cellToChildren(h3index, 10)
const centerChild = h3.cellToCenterChild(h3index, 10)
const packedRings = h3.compactCells([].concat(...threeRings))
const unpackedRings = h3.uncompactCells(packedRings, 9)
const bayAreaHexes = h3.polygonToCells([
[37.77, -122.43],
[37.55, -122.43],
[37.55, -122.23],
[37.77, -122.23],
[37.77, -122.43],
], 9)
const bayAreaHexGeo = h3.cellsToMultiPolygon(bayAreaHexes)
const areNeighbors = h3.areNeighborCells(neighbors[0], neighbors[1])
const edgeIndex = h3.cellsToDirectedEdge(neighbors[0], neighbors[1])
const isValidEdge = h3.isValidDirectedEdge(edgeIndex)
const edgeLenM = h3.edgeLength(edgeIndex, h3.UNITS.m)
const origin = h3.getDirectedEdgeOrigin(edgeIndex)
const destination = h3.getDirectedEdgeDestination(edgeIndex)
const [start, end] = h3.directedEdgeToCells(edgeIndex)
const edges = h3.originToDirectedEdges(h3index)
const edgeBoundaries = edges.map(h3.directedEdgeToBoundary)
const sfCoordsRads = [37.77, -122.43].map(h3.degsToRads)
const sfCoordsDegs = sfCoordsRads.map(h3.radsToDegs)
const resStats = Array.from(new Array(16), (x, res) => ({
res,
numHexagons: h3.numHexagons(res),
edgeLength: {
m: h3.getHexagonEdgeLengthAvg(res, h3.UNITS.m),
km: h3.getHexagonEdgeLengthAvg(res, h3.UNITS.km),
},
hexArea: {
m2: h3.getHexagonAreaAvg(res, h3.UNITS.m2),
km2: h3.getHexagonAreaAvg(res, h3.UNITS.km2),
},
pentagons: h3.getPentagons(res),
}))
const res0Indexes = h3.getRes0Cells()h3-js is an emscripten transpilation of the H3 code into Javascript with a Javascript wrapper file similar to a binding in spirit to handle calling these quasi-C functions for you.
Being 100% javascript it works across the entire Javascript ecosystem (especially when paired with browserify or babel to handle the Node-isms for non-Node JS environments), but that portability comes at a cost in performance. Preliminary benchmarks show a significant speedup with the N-API approach:
damocles@elack:~/oss/h3-node(upgrade-to-v4)$ yarn test
yarn run v1.22.19
$ nodeunit test
index
✔ isValidCell_array
✔ isValidCell_uint32array
✔ cellToLatLng_array
✔ cellToLatLng_uint32array
✔ latLngToCell
✔ cellToLatLng
✔ cellToBoundary
✔ getResolution
✔ getBaseCellNumber
✔ isValidCell
✔ isResClassIII
✔ isPentagon
✔ getIcosahedronFaces
✔ gridDisk
✔ gridDiskDistances
undefined
undefined
✔ gridRingUnsafe
✔ gridDistance
✔ cellToLocalIj
undefined
undefined
✔ localIjToCell
✔ cellToParent
✔ cellToChildren
✔ cellToCenterChild
✔ compactCells
✔ uncompactCells
✔ polygonToCells
✔ polygonToCellsWithHoles
✔ cellsToMultiPolygon
✔ cellsToMultiPolygonGeoJsonMode
✔ cellsToMultiPolygonTrueMultiPolygon
✔ areNeighborCells
✔ cellsToDirectedEdge
✔ isValidDirectedEdge
✔ getDirectedEdgeOrigin
✔ getDirectedEdgeDestination
✔ directedEdgeToCells
✔ originToDirectedEdges
✔ directedEdgeToBoundary
✔ degsToRads
✔ radsToDegs
✔ getNumCells
✔ getHexagonEdgeLengthAvg
✔ edgeLength
✔ getHexagonAreaAvg
✔ cellArea
✔ greatCircleDistance
✔ getRes0Cells
✔ getPentagons
latLngToCell Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 8407061
H3-node time in ns: 1696666
✔ latLngToCellBenchmark
cellToLatLng Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 3957443
H3-node time in ns: 1500690
✔ cellToLatLngBenchmark
cellToBoundary Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 7288756
H3-node time in ns: 5075260
✔ cellToBoundaryBenchmark
getResolution Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 2497192
H3-node time in ns: 299202
✔ getResolutionBenchmark
getBaseCellNumber Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 341876
H3-node time in ns: 304160
✔ getBaseCellNumberBenchmark
isValidCell Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 259113
H3-node time in ns: 263024
✔ isValidCellBenchmark
isResClassIII Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 649109
H3-node time in ns: 470734
✔ isResClassIIIBenchmark
isPentagon Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 477089
H3-node time in ns: 310935
✔ isPentagonBenchmark
getIcosahedronFaces Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 4100479
H3-node time in ns: 1311698
✔ getIcosahedronFacesBenchmark
gridDisk Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 119649189
H3-node time in ns: 41318171
✔ gridDiskBenchmark
gridDiskDistances Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 104035995
H3-node time in ns: 53421119
✔ gridDiskDistancesBenchmark
gridRingUnsafe Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 13028001
H3-node time in ns: 9361658
✔ gridRingUnsafeBenchmark
gridDistance Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 6042499
H3-node time in ns: 1839702
✔ gridDistanceBenchmark
cellToLocalIj Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 3213419
H3-node time in ns: 2277539
✔ cellToLocalIjBenchmark
localIjToCell Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 10561051
H3-node time in ns: 1960318
✔ localIjToCellBenchmark
gridPathCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 66085174
H3-node time in ns: 48151768
✔ gridPathCellsBenchmark
cellToParent Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 1062642
H3-node time in ns: 411856
✔ cellToParentBenchmark
cellToChildren Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 985474186
H3-node time in ns: 895306179
✔ cellToChildrenBenchmark
cellToCenterChild Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 1203932
H3-node time in ns: 454949
✔ cellToCenterChildBenchmark
compactCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 120589679
H3-node time in ns: 49026745
✔ compactCellsBenchmark
uncompactCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 51719983
H3-node time in ns: 43166044
✔ uncompactCellsBenchmark
polygonToCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 51227180
H3-node time in ns: 27323211
✔ polygonToCellsBenchmark
polygonToCellsWithHoles Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 57260529
H3-node time in ns: 41699019
✔ polygonToCellsWithHolesBenchmark
cellsToMultiPolygon Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 471233062
H3-node time in ns: 393672608
✔ cellsToMultiPolygonBenchmark
cellsToMultiPolygonGeoJsonMode Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 443336590
H3-node time in ns: 390950036
✔ cellsToMultiPolygonGeoJsonModeBenchmark
cellsToMultiPolygonTrueMultiPolygon Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 578690116
H3-node time in ns: 518527732
✔ cellsToMultiPolygonTrueMultiPolygonBenchmark
areNeighborCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 2038122
H3-node time in ns: 647922
✔ areNeighborCellsBenchmark
cellsToDirectedEdge Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 1948026
H3-node time in ns: 993080
✔ cellsToDirectedEdgeBenchmark
isValidDirectedEdge Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 635001
H3-node time in ns: 294313
✔ isValidDirectedEdgeBenchmark
getDirectedEdgeOrigin Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 717554
H3-node time in ns: 400194
✔ getDirectedEdgeOriginBenchmark
getDirectedEdgeDestination Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 1119284
H3-node time in ns: 978832
✔ getDirectedEdgeDestinationBenchmark
directedEdgeToCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 1186332
H3-node time in ns: 933715
✔ directedEdgeToCellsBenchmark
originToDirectedEdges Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 2235844
H3-node time in ns: 2371965
✔ originToDirectedEdgesBenchmark
directedEdgeToBoundary Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 3099228
H3-node time in ns: 2619554
✔ directedEdgeToBoundaryBenchmark
degsToRads Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 33804
H3-node time in ns: 98267
✔ degsToRadsBenchmark
radsToDegs Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 87302
H3-node time in ns: 90584
✔ radsToDegsBenchmark
getNumCells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 330701
H3-node time in ns: 88140
✔ getNumCellsBenchmark
getHexagonEdgeLengthAvg Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 352072
H3-node time in ns: 111467
✔ getHexagonEdgeLengthAvgBenchmark
edgeLength Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 4884662
H3-node time in ns: 2593644
✔ edgeLengthBenchmark
getHexagonAreaAvg Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 320085
H3-node time in ns: 112515
✔ getHexagonAreaAvgBenchmark
cellArea Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 8145085
H3-node time in ns: 3914910
✔ cellAreaBenchmark
greatCircleDistance Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 1210916
H3-node time in ns: 730614
✔ greatCircleDistanceBenchmark
getRes0Cells Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 35733206
H3-node time in ns: 28694344
✔ getRes0CellsBenchmark
getPentagons Benchmark:
H3-js time in ns: 5991654
H3-node time in ns: 3668299
✔ getPentagonsBenchmark
OK: 452 assertions (9021ms)
Done in 9.18s.
h3-node is a Node N-API binding of the original C H3 code to provide a higher-performance option in backend Node.js applications.
That makes h3-node a "nice to have" but not as required as h3-js. (In a similar vein, I intend to write an h3-wasm for higher-performance H3 in modern browsers that can be a drop-in replacement for h3-js when WebAssembly is present.)