Path data for navigation systems

The invention is directed to a computer-implemented method for decoding path data. The method comprises providing a navigation database for storing topological information of a road network. The navigation database comprises a plurality of road links, each road link having a start point and an end point, and a plurality of link nodes, each link node defining a topological connection between two ormore of the road links and an order of the two or more connected road links. The method further comprises receiving path data indicative of a path within the road network, wherein the path data comprises a start identifier, a link count and at least one exit number. The method further comprises selecting, from the navigation database, one road link of the plurality of the road links as a start road link of the path based the start identifier. Moreover, the method comprises iteratively expanding the path with selected road links until the link count is equal to the number of road links of thepath. An iteration of the