Getting the bounds of an MKMapView

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In order to setup a query to an external server I want to get the bounds of the current Map View in an iPhone app I'm building. UIView should respond to bounds but it seems MKMapView doesn't. After setting a region and zooming in the map I try to get the bounds. I'm stuck on the first step which is to try to get the CGPoints that represent the SE and NW corners of the map. After that I was going to use:

- (CLLocationCoordinate2D)convertPoint:(CGPoint)point toCoordinateFromView:(UIView *)view

To transform the points into map coordinates. But I can't even get that far...

//Recenter and zoom map in on search location
MKCoordinateRegion region =  {{0.0f, 0.0f}, {0.0f, 0.0f}};
region.center = mySearchLocation.searchLocation.coordinate;
region.span.longitudeDelta = 0.01f;
region.span.latitudeDelta = 0.01f;
[self.mapView setRegion:region animated:YES];


//After the new search location has been added to the map, and the map zoomed, we need to update the search bounds
//First we need to calculate the corners of the map
CGPoint se = CGPointMake(self.mapView.bounds.origin.x, mapView.bounds.origin.y);
CGPoint nw = CGPointMake((self.mapView.bounds.origin.x + mapView.bounds.size.width), (mapView.bounds.origin.y + mapView.bounds.size.height));
NSLog(@"points are: se %@, nw %@", se, nw);

The code compiles without warnings however se and nw are both null. Looking at self.mapView.bounds.origin.x the variable is 0. Trying to NSLog directly self.mapView.bounds.size.width gives me a "Program received signal: “EXC_BAD_ACCESS”." which seems to come from NSLog.

Anyone know the proper way to get the south east corner and northwest corner (in map coordinates) from the visible area of a MKMapView?

EDIT: It seems whenever you asked something here the answer comes to you right after. I was using %@ instead of @f to print each variable in NSLog which was throwing errors there. I also discovered the annotationVisibleRect property of MKMapview. It seems though that the annotationVisibleRect is based on the parent view coordinates.

10 Answers

Okay I officially answered my own question but since I didn't find it anywhere before I'll post the answer here:

//To calculate the search bounds...
//First we need to calculate the corners of the map so we get the points
CGPoint nePoint = CGPointMake(self.mapView.bounds.origin.x + mapView.bounds.size.width, mapView.bounds.origin.y);
CGPoint swPoint = CGPointMake((self.mapView.bounds.origin.x), (mapView.bounds.origin.y + mapView.bounds.size.height));

//Then transform those point into lat,lng values
CLLocationCoordinate2D neCoord;
neCoord = [mapView convertPoint:nePoint toCoordinateFromView:mapView];

CLLocationCoordinate2D swCoord;
swCoord = [mapView convertPoint:swPoint toCoordinateFromView:mapView];

SWIFT 5

public extension MKMapView {

  var newBounds: MapBounds {
    let originPoint = CGPoint(x: bounds.origin.x + bounds.size.width, y: bounds.origin.y)
    let rightBottomPoint = CGPoint(x: bounds.origin.x, y: bounds.origin.y + bounds.size.height)

    let originCoordinates = convert(originPoint, toCoordinateFrom: self)
    let rightBottomCoordinates = convert(rightBottomPoint, toCoordinateFrom: self)

    return MapBounds(
      firstBound: CLLocation(latitude: originCoordinates.latitude, longitude: originCoordinates.longitude),
      secondBound: CLLocation(latitude: rightBottomCoordinates.latitude, longitude: rightBottomCoordinates.longitude)
    )
  }
}

public struct MapBounds {
  let firstBound: CLLocation
  let secondBound: CLLocation
}

Usage

self.mapView.newBounds

This extension solves this problem and maintain the centerCoordinate syntax in Swift 5

extension MKMapView {
    var northWestCoordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D {
        return MKMapPoint(x: visibleMapRect.minX, y: visibleMapRect.minY).coordinate
    }

    var northEastCoordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D {
        return MKMapPoint(x: visibleMapRect.maxX, y: visibleMapRect.minY).coordinate
    }

    var southEastCoordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D {
        return MKMapPoint(x: visibleMapRect.maxX, y: visibleMapRect.maxY).coordinate
    }

    var southWestCoordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D {
        return MKMapPoint(x: visibleMapRect.minX, y: visibleMapRect.maxY).coordinate
    }
}

Updated @onmyway133's excellent answer for my purposes, I needed the coordinates of all four corners:

struct BoundingBox {
    let topRight: CLLocationCoordinate2D
    let topLeft: CLLocationCoordinate2D
    let bottomRight: CLLocationCoordinate2D
    let bottomLeft: CLLocationCoordinate2D
    
    init(rect: MKMapRect) {
        topRight = MKMapPoint(x: rect.maxX, y: rect.origin.y).coordinate
        topLeft = MKMapPoint(x: rect.origin.x, y: rect.origin.y).coordinate
        bottomRight = MKMapPoint(x: rect.maxX, y: rect.maxY).coordinate
        bottomLeft = MKMapPoint(x: rect.origin.x, y: rect.maxY).coordinate
    }
    
    var items: [String: CLLocationCoordinate2D] {
        return [
            "topRight": topRight,
            "topLeft": topLeft,
            "bottomRight": bottomRight,
            "bottomLeft": bottomLeft,
        ]
    }
    
    var points: [CLLocationDegrees] {
        return [
            topRight.latitude,
            topRight.longitude,
            topLeft.latitude,
            topLeft.longitude,
            bottomRight.latitude,
            bottomRight.longitude,
            bottomLeft.latitude,
            bottomLeft.longitude,
        ]
    }
}

And an example of how I used this data:

let boundingBox = BoundingBox(rect: mapView.visibleMapRect)
var annotations = Array<MKPointAnnotation>()

for point in boundingBox.items {
    let newPoint = MKPointAnnotation()
    newPoint.coordinate = point.value
    annotations.append(newPoint)
}

mapView.addAnnotations(annotations)

I was having some trouble with some of the other answers for maps that had been 2 finger rotated. This code worked for me:

MKMapRect rect = self.mapView.visibleMapRect;
CLLocationCoordinate2D northeast = MKCoordinateForMapPoint(MKMapPointMake(MKMapRectGetMaxX(rect),rect.origin.y));
CLLocationCoordinate2D southwest = MKCoordinateForMapPoint(MKMapPointMake(rect.origin.x         ,MKMapRectGetMaxY(rect)));

My answer is derived from 陈保状's answer and the associated website enter link description here. Its simplified down too 3 lines for south west and north east corners.

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