Fastest Way to Find Distance Between Two Lat/Long Points

• Create your points using Point values of Geometry data types in MyISAM table. As of Mysql 5.7.5, InnoDB tables now also support SPATIAL indices.

• Create a SPATIAL index on these points

• Use MBRContains() to find the values:

    SELECT  *
    FROM    table
    WHERE   MBRContains(LineFromText(CONCAT(
            '('
            , @lon + 10 / ( 111.1 / cos(RADIANS(@lat)))
            , ' '
            , @lat + 10 / 111.1
            , ','
            , @lon - 10 / ( 111.1 / cos(RADIANS(@lat)))
            , ' '
            , @lat - 10 / 111.1 
            , ')' )
            ,mypoint)
  

, or, in MySQL 5.1 and above:

    SELECT  *
    FROM    table
    WHERE   MBRContains
                    (
                    LineString
                            (
                            Point (
                                    @lon + 10 / ( 111.1 / COS(RADIANS(@lat))),
                                    @lat + 10 / 111.1
                                  ),
                            Point (
                                    @lon - 10 / ( 111.1 / COS(RADIANS(@lat))),
                                    @lat - 10 / 111.1
                                  ) 
                            ),
                    mypoint
                    )

This will select all points approximately within the box (@lat +/- 10 km, @lon +/- 10km).

This actually is not a box, but a spherical rectangle: latitude and longitude bound segment of the sphere. This may differ from a plain rectangle on the Franz Joseph Land, but quite close to it on most inhabited places.

• Apply additional filtering to select everything inside the circle (not the square)

• Possibly apply additional fine filtering to account for the big circle distance (for large distances)