How to test if a line segment intersects an axis-aligned rectange in 2D?

Question

How to test if a line segment intersects an axis-aligned rectange in 2D? The segment is defined with its two ends: p1, p2. The rectangle is defined with top-left and bottom-

Answer 1

I was looking at a similar problem and here's what I came up with. I was first comparing the edges and realized something. If the midpoint of an edge that fell within the opposite axis of the first box is within half the length of that edge of the outer points on the first in the same axis, then there is an intersection of that side somewhere. But that was thinking 1 dimensionally and required looking at each side of the second box to figure out.

It suddenly occurred to me that if you find the 'midpoint' of the second box and compare the coordinates of the midpoint to see if they fall within 1/2 length of a side (of the second box) of the outer dimensions of the first, then there is an intersection somewhere.

i.e. box 1 is bounded by x1,y1 to x2,y2
box 2 is bounded by a1,b1 to a2,b2

the width and height of box 2 is:
w2 = a2 - a1   (half of that is w2/2)
h2 = b2 - b1   (half of that is h2/2)
the midpoints of box 2 are:
am = a1 + w2/2
bm = b1 + h2/2

So now you just check if
(x1 - w2/2) < am < (x2 + w2/2) and (y1 - h2/2) < bm < (y2 + h2/2) 
then the two overlap somewhere.
If you want to check also for edges intersecting to count as 'overlap' then
 change the < to <=

Of course you could just as easily compare the other way around (checking midpoints of box1 to be within 1/2 length of the outer dimenions of box 2)

And even more simplification - shift the midpoint by your half lengths and it's identical to the origin point of that box. Which means you can now check just that point for falling within your bounding range and by shifting the plain up and to the left, the lower corner is now the lower corner of the first box. Much less math:

(x1 - w2) < a1 < x2
&&
(y1 - h2) < b1 < y2
[overlap exists]

or non-substituted:

( (x1-(a2-a1)) < a1 < x2 ) && ( (y1-(b2-b1)) < b1 < y2 ) [overlap exists]
( (x1-(a2-a1)) <= a1 <= x2 ) && ( (y1-(b2-b1)) <= b1 <= y2 ) [overlap or intersect exists]