Points lying within line

How I can find quickly wether a point lies on a line in the 2d-space, where the coordinates of the line are x1,x2,y1,y2.

thanks in advance

Answer 1

[Jan]

Are the two points meant as end points of a line segement, or just two points on a line, which has infinite length?

function R = isPointOnLine(P1, P2, Q, EndPoints)
% Is point Q=[x3,y3] on line through P1=[x1,y1] and P2=[x2,y2]

% Normal along the line:
P12 = P2 - P1;
L12 = sqrt(P12 * P12');
N   = P12 / L12;

% Line from P1 to Q:
PQ = Q - P1;

% Norm of distance vector: LPQ = N x PQ
Dist = abs(N(1) * PQ(2) - N(2) * PQ(1));

% Consider rounding errors:
Limit = 10 * eps(max(abs(cat(1, P1(:), P2(:), Q(:)))));
R     = (Dist < Limit);

% Consider end points if any 4th input is used:
if R && nargin == 4
  % Projection of the vector from P1 to Q on the line:
  L = PQ * N.';  % DOT product
  R = (L > 0.0 && L < L12);
end

This considers line in all directions, rounding errors and if the 4th input is used, Q must be element of the line between P1 and P2.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

On a related note, if you didn't know the line formula and needed to figure it out, you mgiht take a look at RANSAC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_sample_consensus

Answer 3

[Alessandro La Chioma]

You can have a little function like the following:

function IsPointWithinLine(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3)
    % Line equation: y = m*x + b;
    m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1);
    b = y1 - m*x1;
    yy3 = m*x3 + b;
    if y3 == yy3
        disp('The point lies on the line')
    else
        disp('The point does NOT lie on the line')
    end

[Jan]

This is fast and lean, but it gets a problem with x1 == x2 and the limited precision requires to compare y3 and yy3 with a useful limit.

[Image Analyst]

You'd need to use ismembertol() instead of ==.

[Jan]

A combination:

function R = IsPointWithinLine(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3)
% Line equation: y = m*x + b;
Limit = 100 * eps(max(abs([x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3])));
if x1 ~= x2
  m   = (y2-y1) / (x2-x1);
  yy3 = m*x3 + y1 - m*x1;
  R   = (abs(y3 - yy3) < 100 * Limit);
else
  R   = (x3 < Limit);
end