Circle-Rectangle collision detection (intersection)

Question

How can I tell whether a circle and a rectangle intersect in 2D Euclidean space? (i.e. classic 2D geometry)

Answer 1

Here is another solution that's pretty simple to implement (and pretty fast, too). It will catch all intersections, including when the sphere has fully entered the rectangle.

// clamp(value, min, max) - limits value to the range min..max

// Find the closest point to the circle within the rectangle
float closestX = clamp(circle.X, rectangle.Left, rectangle.Right);
float closestY = clamp(circle.Y, rectangle.Top, rectangle.Bottom);

// Calculate the distance between the circle's center and this closest point
float distanceX = circle.X - closestX;
float distanceY = circle.Y - closestY;

// If the distance is less than the circle's radius, an intersection occurs
float distanceSquared = (distanceX * distanceX) + (distanceY * distanceY);
return distanceSquared < (circle.Radius * circle.Radius);

With any decent math library, that can be shortened to 3 or 4 lines.