majors = 'north east south west'.split() majors *= 2 # no need for modulo later quarter1 = 'N,N by E,N-NE,NE by N,NE,NE by E,E-NE,E by N'.split(',') quarter2 = [p.replace('NE','EN') for p in quarter1] def degrees2compasspoint(d): d = (d % 360) + 360/64 majorindex, minor = divmod(d, 90.) majorindex = int(majorindex) minorindex = int( (minor*4) // 45 ) p1, p2 = majors[majorindex: majorindex+2] if p1 in {'north', 'south'}: q = quarter1 else: q = quarter2 return q[minorindex].replace('N', p1).replace('E', p2).capitalize() if __name__ == '__main__': for i in range(33): d = i * 11.25 m = i % 3 if m == 1: d += 5.62 elif m == 2: d -= 5.62 n = i % 32 + 1 print( '%2i %-18s %7.2f°' % (n, degrees2compasspoint(d), d) )