How do you detect where two line segments intersec

Question

How do I determine whether or not two lines intersect, and if they do, at what x,y point?

Answer 1

This is working well for me. Taken from here.

 // calculates intersection and checks for parallel lines.  
 // also checks that the intersection point is actually on  
 // the line segment p1-p2  
 Point findIntersection(Point p1,Point p2,  
   Point p3,Point p4) {  
   float xD1,yD1,xD2,yD2,xD3,yD3;  
   float dot,deg,len1,len2;  
   float segmentLen1,segmentLen2;  
   float ua,ub,div;  

   // calculate differences  
   xD1=p2.x-p1.x;  
   xD2=p4.x-p3.x;  
   yD1=p2.y-p1.y;  
   yD2=p4.y-p3.y;  
   xD3=p1.x-p3.x;  
   yD3=p1.y-p3.y;    

   // calculate the lengths of the two lines  
   len1=sqrt(xD1*xD1+yD1*yD1);  
   len2=sqrt(xD2*xD2+yD2*yD2);  

   // calculate angle between the two lines.  
   dot=(xD1*xD2+yD1*yD2); // dot product  
   deg=dot/(len1*len2);  

   // if abs(angle)==1 then the lines are parallell,  
   // so no intersection is possible  
   if(abs(deg)==1) return null;  

   // find intersection Pt between two lines  
   Point pt=new Point(0,0);  
   div=yD2*xD1-xD2*yD1;  
   ua=(xD2*yD3-yD2*xD3)/div;  
   ub=(xD1*yD3-yD1*xD3)/div;  
   pt.x=p1.x+ua*xD1;  
   pt.y=p1.y+ua*yD1;  

   // calculate the combined length of the two segments  
   // between Pt-p1 and Pt-p2  
   xD1=pt.x-p1.x;  
   xD2=pt.x-p2.x;  
   yD1=pt.y-p1.y;  
   yD2=pt.y-p2.y;  
   segmentLen1=sqrt(xD1*xD1+yD1*yD1)+sqrt(xD2*xD2+yD2*yD2);  

   // calculate the combined length of the two segments  
   // between Pt-p3 and Pt-p4  
   xD1=pt.x-p3.x;  
   xD2=pt.x-p4.x;  
   yD1=pt.y-p3.y;  
   yD2=pt.y-p4.y;  
   segmentLen2=sqrt(xD1*xD1+yD1*yD1)+sqrt(xD2*xD2+yD2*yD2);  

   // if the lengths of both sets of segments are the same as  
   // the lenghts of the two lines the point is actually  
   // on the line segment.  

   // if the point isn’t on the line, return null  
   if(abs(len1-segmentLen1)>0.01 || abs(len2-segmentLen2)>0.01)  
     return null;  

   // return the valid intersection  
   return pt;  
 }  

 class Point{  
   float x,y;  
   Point(float x, float y){  
     this.x = x;  
     this.y = y;  
   }  

   void set(float x, float y){  
     this.x = x;  
     this.y = y;  
   }  
 }  

Answer 2

I tried some of these answers, but they didnt work for me (sorry guys); after some more net searching I found this.

With a little modification to his code I now have this function that will return the point of intersection or if no intersection is found it will return -1,-1.

    Public Function intercetion(ByVal ax As Integer, ByVal ay As Integer, ByVal bx As Integer, ByVal by As Integer, ByVal cx As Integer, ByVal cy As Integer, ByVal dx As Integer, ByVal dy As Integer) As Point
    '//  Determines the intersection point of the line segment defined by points A and B
    '//  with the line segment defined by points C and D.
    '//
    '//  Returns YES if the intersection point was found, and stores that point in X,Y.
    '//  Returns NO if there is no determinable intersection point, in which case X,Y will
    '//  be unmodified.

    Dim distAB, theCos, theSin, newX, ABpos As Double

    '//  Fail if either line segment is zero-length.
    If ax = bx And ay = by Or cx = dx And cy = dy Then Return New Point(-1, -1)

    '//  Fail if the segments share an end-point.
    If ax = cx And ay = cy Or bx = cx And by = cy Or ax = dx And ay = dy Or bx = dx And by = dy Then Return New Point(-1, -1)

    '//  (1) Translate the system so that point A is on the origin.
    bx -= ax
    by -= ay
    cx -= ax
    cy -= ay
    dx -= ax
    dy -= ay

    '//  Discover the length of segment A-B.
    distAB = Math.Sqrt(bx * bx + by * by)

    '//  (2) Rotate the system so that point B is on the positive X axis.
    theCos = bx / distAB
    theSin = by / distAB
    newX = cx * theCos + cy * theSin
    cy = cy * theCos - cx * theSin
    cx = newX
    newX = dx * theCos + dy * theSin
    dy = dy * theCos - dx * theSin
    dx = newX

    '//  Fail if segment C-D doesn't cross line A-B.
    If cy < 0 And dy < 0 Or cy >= 0 And dy >= 0 Then Return New Point(-1, -1)

    '//  (3) Discover the position of the intersection point along line A-B.
    ABpos = dx + (cx - dx) * dy / (dy - cy)

    '//  Fail if segment C-D crosses line A-B outside of segment A-B.
    If ABpos < 0 Or ABpos > distAB Then Return New Point(-1, -1)

    '//  (4) Apply the discovered position to line A-B in the original coordinate system.
    '*X=Ax+ABpos*theCos
    '*Y=Ay+ABpos*theSin

    '//  Success.
    Return New Point(ax + ABpos * theCos, ay + ABpos * theSin)
End Function

Answer 3

The problem reduces to this question: Do two lines from A to B and from C to D intersect? Then you can ask it four times (between the line and each of the four sides of the rectangle).

Here's the vector math for doing it. I'm assuming the line from A to B is the line in question and the line from C to D is one of the rectangle lines. My notation is that Ax is the "x-coordinate of A" and Cy is the "y-coordinate of C." And "*" means dot-product, so e.g. A*B = Ax*Bx + Ay*By.

E = B-A = ( Bx-Ax, By-Ay )
F = D-C = ( Dx-Cx, Dy-Cy ) 
P = ( -Ey, Ex )
h = ( (A-C) * P ) / ( F * P )

This h number is the key. If h is between 0 and 1, the lines intersect, otherwise they don't. If F*P is zero, of course you cannot make the calculation, but in this case the lines are parallel and therefore only intersect in the obvious cases.

The exact point of intersection is C + F*h.

More Fun:

If h is exactly 0 or 1 the lines touch at an end-point. You can consider this an "intersection" or not as you see fit.

Specifically, h is how much you have to multiply the length of the line in order to exactly touch the other line.

Therefore, If h<0, it means the rectangle line is "behind" the given line (with "direction" being "from A to B"), and if h>1 the rectangle line is "in front" of the given line.

Derivation:

A and C are vectors that point to the start of the line; E and F are the vectors from the ends of A and C that form the line.

For any two non-parallel lines in the plane, there must be exactly one pair of scalar g and h such that this equation holds:

A + E*g = C + F*h

Why? Because two non-parallel lines must intersect, which means you can scale both lines by some amount each and touch each other.

(At first this looks like a single equation with two unknowns! But it isn't when you consider that this is a 2D vector equation, which means this is really a pair of equations in x and y.)

We have to eliminate one of these variables. An easy way is to make the E term zero. To do that, take the dot-product of both sides of the equation using a vector that will dot to zero with E. That vector I called P above, and I did the obvious transformation of E.

You now have:

A*P = C*P + F*P*h
(A-C)*P = (F*P)*h
( (A-C)*P ) / (F*P) = h

Answer 4

If each side of the rectangle is a line segment, and the user drawn portion is a line segment, then you need to just check the user drawn segment for intersection with the four side line segments. This should be a fairly simple exercise given the start and end points of each segment.

Answer 5

I have tried to implement the algorithm so elegantly described by Jason above; unfortunately while working though the mathematics in the debugging I found many cases for which it doesn't work.

For example consider the points A(10,10) B(20,20) C(10,1) D(1,10) gives h=.5 and yet it is clear by examination that these segments are no-where near each other.

Graphing this makes it clear that 0 < h < 1 criteria only indicates that the intercept point would lie on CD if it existed but tells one nothing of whether that point lies on AB. To ensure that there is a cross point you must do the symmetrical calculation for the variable g and the requirement for interception is: 0 < g < 1 AND 0 < h < 1

Answer 6

Finding the correct intersection of two line segments is a non-trivial task with lots of edge cases. Here's a well documented, working and tested solution in Java.

In essence, there are three things that can happen when finding the intersection of two line segments:

1. The segments do not intersect

2. There is a unique intersection point

3. The intersection is another segment

NOTE: In the code, I assume that a line segment (x1, y1), (x2, y2) with x1 = x2 and y1 = y2 is a valid line segment. Mathematically speaking, a line segment consists of distinct points, but I am allowing segments to be points in this implementation for completeness.

Code is taken from my github repo

/**
 * This snippet finds the intersection of two line segments.
 * The intersection may either be empty, a single point or the
 * intersection is a subsegment there's an overlap.
 */

import static java.lang.Math.abs;
import static java.lang.Math.max;
import static java.lang.Math.min;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class LineSegmentLineSegmentIntersection {

  // Small epsilon used for double value comparison.
  private static final double EPS = 1e-5;

  // 2D Point class.
  public static class Pt {
    double x, y;
    public Pt(double x, double y) {
      this.x = x; 
      this.y = y;
    }
    public boolean equals(Pt pt) {
      return abs(x - pt.x) < EPS && abs(y - pt.y) < EPS;
    }
  }

  // Finds the orientation of point 'c' relative to the line segment (a, b)
  // Returns  0 if all three points are collinear.
  // Returns -1 if 'c' is clockwise to segment (a, b), i.e right of line formed by the segment.
  // Returns +1 if 'c' is counter clockwise to segment (a, b), i.e left of line
  // formed by the segment.
  public static int orientation(Pt a, Pt b, Pt c) {
    double value = (b.y - a.y) * (c.x - b.x) - 
                   (b.x - a.x) * (c.y - b.y);
    if (abs(value) < EPS) return 0;
    return (value > 0) ? -1 : +1;
  }

  // Tests whether point 'c' is on the line segment (a, b).
  // Ensure first that point c is collinear to segment (a, b) and
  // then check whether c is within the rectangle formed by (a, b)
  public static boolean pointOnLine(Pt a, Pt b, Pt c) {
    return orientation(a, b, c) == 0 && 
           min(a.x, b.x) <= c.x && c.x <= max(a.x, b.x) && 
           min(a.y, b.y) <= c.y && c.y <= max(a.y, b.y);
  }

  // Determines whether two segments intersect.
  public static boolean segmentsIntersect(Pt p1, Pt p2, Pt p3, Pt p4) {

    // Get the orientation of points p3 and p4 in relation
    // to the line segment (p1, p2)
    int o1 = orientation(p1, p2, p3);
    int o2 = orientation(p1, p2, p4);
    int o3 = orientation(p3, p4, p1);
    int o4 = orientation(p3, p4, p2);

    // If the points p1, p2 are on opposite sides of the infinite
    // line formed by (p3, p4) and conversly p3, p4 are on opposite
    // sides of the infinite line formed by (p1, p2) then there is
    // an intersection.
    if (o1 != o2 && o3 != o4) return true;

    // Collinear special cases (perhaps these if checks can be simplified?)
    if (o1 == 0 && pointOnLine(p1, p2, p3)) return true;
    if (o2 == 0 && pointOnLine(p1, p2, p4)) return true;
    if (o3 == 0 && pointOnLine(p3, p4, p1)) return true;
    if (o4 == 0 && pointOnLine(p3, p4, p2)) return true;

    return false;
  }

  public static List<Pt> getCommonEndpoints(Pt p1, Pt p2, Pt p3, Pt p4) {

    List<Pt> points = new ArrayList<>();

    if (p1.equals(p3)) {
      points.add(p1);
      if (p2.equals(p4)) points.add(p2);

    } else if (p1.equals(p4)) {
      points.add(p1);
      if (p2.equals(p3)) points.add(p2);

    } else if (p2.equals(p3)) {
      points.add(p2);
      if (p1.equals(p4)) points.add(p1);

    } else if (p2.equals(p4)) {
      points.add(p2);
      if (p1.equals(p3)) points.add(p1);
    }

    return points;
  }

  // Finds the intersection point(s) of two line segments. Unlike regular line 
  // segments, segments which are points (x1 = x2 and y1 = y2) are allowed.
  public static Pt[] lineSegmentLineSegmentIntersection(Pt p1, Pt p2, Pt p3, Pt p4) {

    // No intersection.
    if (!segmentsIntersect(p1, p2, p3, p4)) return new Pt[]{};

    // Both segments are a single point.
    if (p1.equals(p2) && p2.equals(p3) && p3.equals(p4))
      return new Pt[]{p1};

    List<Pt> endpoints = getCommonEndpoints(p1, p2, p3, p4);
    int n = endpoints.size();

    // One of the line segments is an intersecting single point.
    // NOTE: checking only n == 1 is insufficient to return early
    // because the solution might be a sub segment.
    boolean singleton = p1.equals(p2) || p3.equals(p4);
    if (n == 1 && singleton) return new Pt[]{endpoints.get(0)};

    // Segments are equal.
    if (n == 2) return new Pt[]{endpoints.get(0), endpoints.get(1)};

    boolean collinearSegments = (orientation(p1, p2, p3) == 0) && 
                                (orientation(p1, p2, p4) == 0);

    // The intersection will be a sub-segment of the two
    // segments since they overlap each other.
    if (collinearSegments) {

      // Segment #2 is enclosed in segment #1
      if (pointOnLine(p1, p2, p3) && pointOnLine(p1, p2, p4))
        return new Pt[]{p3, p4};

      // Segment #1 is enclosed in segment #2
      if (pointOnLine(p3, p4, p1) && pointOnLine(p3, p4, p2))
        return new Pt[]{p1, p2};

      // The subsegment is part of segment #1 and part of segment #2.
      // Find the middle points which correspond to this segment.
      Pt midPoint1 = pointOnLine(p1, p2, p3) ? p3 : p4;
      Pt midPoint2 = pointOnLine(p3, p4, p1) ? p1 : p2;

      // There is actually only one middle point!
      if (midPoint1.equals(midPoint2)) return new Pt[]{midPoint1};

      return new Pt[]{midPoint1, midPoint2};
    }

    /* Beyond this point there is a unique intersection point. */

    // Segment #1 is a vertical line.
    if (abs(p1.x - p2.x) < EPS) {
      double m = (p4.y - p3.y) / (p4.x - p3.x);
      double b = p3.y - m * p3.x;
      return new Pt[]{new Pt(p1.x, m * p1.x + b)};
    }

    // Segment #2 is a vertical line.
    if (abs(p3.x - p4.x) < EPS) {
      double m = (p2.y - p1.y) / (p2.x - p1.x);
      double b = p1.y - m * p1.x;
      return new Pt[]{new Pt(p3.x, m * p3.x + b)};
    }

    double m1 = (p2.y - p1.y) / (p2.x - p1.x);
    double m2 = (p4.y - p3.y) / (p4.x - p3.x);
    double b1 = p1.y - m1 * p1.x;
    double b2 = p3.y - m2 * p3.x;
    double x = (b2 - b1) / (m1 - m2);
    double y = (m1 * b2 - m2 * b1) / (m1 - m2);

    return new Pt[]{new Pt(x, y)};
  }

}

Here is a simple usage example:

  public static void main(String[] args) {

    // Segment #1 is (p1, p2), segment #2 is (p3, p4)
    Pt p1, p2, p3, p4;

    p1 = new Pt(-2, 4); p2 = new Pt(3, 3);
    p3 = new Pt(0, 0);  p4 = new Pt(2, 4);
    Pt[] points = lineSegmentLineSegmentIntersection(p1, p2, p3, p4);
    Pt point = points[0];

    // Prints: (1.636, 3.273)
    System.out.printf("(%.3f, %.3f)\n", point.x, point.y);

    p1 = new Pt(-10, 0); p2 = new Pt(+10, 0);
    p3 = new Pt(-5, 0);  p4 = new Pt(+5, 0);
    points = lineSegmentLineSegmentIntersection(p1, p2, p3, p4);
    Pt point1 = points[0], point2 = points[1];

    // Prints: (-5.000, 0.000) (5.000, 0.000)
    System.out.printf("(%.3f, %.3f) (%.3f, %.3f)\n", point1.x, point1.y, point2.x, point2.y);
  }