UnitPosition

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Returns the position of a unit within the current world area. Does not work in raids, dungeons and competitive instances.

posY, posX, posZ, instanceID = UnitPosition(unit)

Arguments

unit 

string - UnitId for which the position is returned. Does not work with all unit types. Works with "player", "partyN" or "raidN" as unit type. In particular, it does not work on pets or any unit not in your group.

Returns

posY 

number - Y value of the unit's position in yards, relative to the instance

posX 

number - X value of the unit's position in yards, relative to the instance

posZ 

number - Always 0. A placeholder for the Z coordinate

instanceID 

number - InstanceID

Example

Returns the distance in yards between 2 units in the same raid, or nil if they're not in the same instance or are in a raid/dungeon/competitive instance.

function ComputeDistance(unit1, unit2)
  local y1, x1, _, instance1 = UnitPosition(unit1)
  local y2, x2, _, instance2 = UnitPosition(unit2)
  return instance1 == instance2 and ((x2 - x1) ^ 2 + (y2 - y1) ^ 2) ^ 0.5
end

It's important to note that since this number is being measured from the center of the two units, and spell ranges are calculated from the edge of their hitbox, you will need to subtract 3 yards if you're using this function for measuring spell distance between players.

Patch changes

• Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25): Returns nil while inside a restricted area (instance/battleground/arena). [1] [2] [3]
  [7.1.0 API changes]
  
  
• Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14): Added.
  [6.0.2 API changes]
  
  

External links

• GitHub FrameXML, Gethe
• Globe "wut?" Tool, Townlong-Yak