Question

currently i have using a framework and it has a function called distance2D, and it has this description:

Calculate the Euclidean distance
between two points (considering a
point as a vector object). Disregards
the Z component of the vectors and is
thus a little faster.

and this is how i use it

if(g.getCenterPointGlobal().distance2D(target.getCenterPointGlobal()) > 1)
   System.out.println("Near");

i have totally no idea what a Euclidean distance is, i am thinking that it can be used to calculate how far 2 points are? because i am trying to compare distance between 2 objects and if they are near within a certain range i want to do something. how would i be able to use this?

Answer 1

Euclidean distance is the distance between 2 points as if you were using a ruler. I don’t know what are the dimensions of your Euclidean space, but be careful because the function you are using just takes in consideration the first two dimensions (x,y). Thus if you have a space with 3 dimensions(x,y,z) it will only use the first two(x,y of x,y,z) to calculate the distance. This may give a wrong result.

For what I understood, if you want to trigger some action when two points are within some range you should make:

<!-- language: lang-java -->
if(g.getCenterPointGlobal().distance2D(target.getCenterPointGlobal()) < RANGE)          
    System.out.println("Near");