Coordinates in degrees, minutes and seconds

[H Garcia]

Hello!

I'm using a SQLServer database and an OGR connection, like this:

LAYER
        NAME mylayer
        TYPE POINT
        CONNECTIONTYPE OGR
        CONNECTION 
        	"<OGRVRTDataSource>
			    <OGRVRTLayer name='mylayer'>
				<SrcDataSource>ODBC:root/xxx at SQLServer</SrcDataSource> 
				<SrcLayer>pois</SrcLayer> 
				<FID>id</FID>
				<GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType> 
				<LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
				<GeometryField encoding='PointFromColumns' x='x' y='y'/> 
			    </OGRVRTLayer>
		</OGRVRTDataSource>"
        
        ...

        PROJECTION
            "init=epsg:4326"
    	END
    	TRANSPARENCY 50
    	DUMP TRUE
    	...
END



The problem is that the x and y table fields are strings so as "42º 17' 30''N"
I would like to know if it is possible to make some type of transformation
between this representation and the decimal one, in order to mapserver to
understand my layer. 

The database is not ours, and we access it through a stored procedure,
that's the reason why we can't make this simple operation in the origin.


Thanks in advance!