The invention discloses a positioning device and a positioning method, and relates to the technical field of positioning and measuring devices. The positioning device comprises a vertical reflecting plate, a supporting rod and a distance measuring mechanism; the vertical reflecting plate is arranged on a positioning reference part and is parallel to the positioning reference part; one end of the supporting rod is rotatably connected with a workbench, the other end of the supporting rod is provided with a positioning block, and the end face of the side, far away from the supporting rod, of thepositioning block is perpendicular to the length direction of the supporting rod; and the distance measuring mechanism is arranged on the supporting rod and arranged to be opposite to the vertical reflecting plate, and the distance measuring mechanism is configured to detect the distances between at least two points on the supporting rod and the vertical reflecting plate. According to the positioning device, when the distances between the at least two points on the supporting rod and the vertical reflecting plate are equal, the supporting rod is parallel to the positioning reference part; andthen the edge of a to-be-positioned workpiece is arranged along the end face of the side, far away from the supporting rod, of the positioning block, therefore, the edge of the to-be-positioned workpiece can be perpendicular to the positioning reference part, skewing of the to-be-positioned workpiece is avoided, and the position precision of the to-be-positioned workpiece is guaranteed.