in reply to Re: line segment intersection
in thread line segment intersection

I took a look at Imager::Graph::Util and the math does not look so good. It doesn't use parametric equations like tye has, so it will be more prone to overflow and roundoff errors. Also, it solves line intersections only, not segments.

An alternative to simplify this type of equation is to use Math::VectorReal. There's a neat formula with vector cross products to solve this problem. It tests for being outside the segment as early as it can.

use strict; use Math::VectorReal; sub Intersection { my( $x0, $y0, $x1, $y1, $x2, $y2, $x3, $y3) = @_; my $v0 = vector($x1 - $x0, $y1 - $y0, 0); my $v1 = vector($x2 - $x0, $y2 - $y0, 0); my $v2 = vector($x3 - $x2, $y3 - $y2, 0); # Take vector cross products. Only Z is nonzero. my $a = ($v0 x $v1)->z(); my $b = ($v2 x $v0)->z(); # If |beta| > 1, line intersection outside segment. # Test it this way to avoid division by zero. return undef if abs($a) > abs($b); my $beta; if ($b == 0.0) { # 0/0 case $beta = 0.0; } else { $beta = $a/$b; } # Line intersection outside segment return undef if ($beta < 0.0); # Now check in the other direction $a = ($v2 x $v1)->z(); # |beta| > 1, line intersection outside segment return undef if abs($a) > abs($b); if ($b == 0) { # 0/0 case $beta = 0.0; } else { $beta = $a/$b; } # line intersection outside other side return undef if ($beta < 0.0); # find by parametric equation $px = $x2 + $beta*($x3 - $x2); $py = $y2 + $beta*($y3 - $y2); return [$px, $py]; }