I need a function to find the shortest distance between two line segments. A line segment is defined by two endpoints. So for example one of my line segments (AB) would be defined by the two points A (x1,y1) and B (x2,y2) and the other (CD) would be defined by the two points C (x1,y1) and D (x2,y2).
Feel free to write the solution in any language you want and I can translate it into javascript. Please keep in mind my geometry skills are pretty rusty. I have already seen here and I am not sure how to translate this into a function. Thank you so much for help.
Is this in 2 dimensions? If so, the answer is simply the shortest of the distance between point A and line segment CD, B and CD, C and AB or D and AB. So it’s a fairly simple “distance between point and line” calculation (if the distances are all the same, then the lines are parallel).
This site explains the algorithm for distance between a point and a line pretty well.
It’s slightly more tricky in the 3 dimensions because the lines are not necessarily in the same plane, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here?