find overlapping rectangles algorithm

Question

let\'s say I have a huge set of non-overlapping rectangle with integer coordinates, who are fixed once and for all

I have another rectangle A with integer coordinate

Answer 1

Personally, I would solve this with a KD-Tree or a BIH-Tree. They are both adaptive spatial data structures that have a log(n) search time. I have an implementation of both for my Ray Tracer, and they scream.

-- UPDATE --

Store all of your fixed rectangles in the KD-Tree. When you are testing intersections, iterate through the KD-Tree as follows:

function FindRects(KDNode node, Rect searchRect, List intersectionRects)

// searchRect is the rectangle you want to test intersections with
// node is the current node. This is a recursive function, so the first call
//    is the root node
// intersectionRects contains the list of rectangles intersected

int axis = node.Axis;

// Only child nodes actually have rects in them
if (node is child)
{
    // Test for intersections with each rectangle the node owns
    for each (Rect nRect in node.Rects)
    {
        if (nRect.Intersects(searchRect))
              intersectionRects.Add(nRect);
    }
}
else
{
    // If the searchRect's boundary extends into the left bi-section of the node
    // we need to search the left sub-tree for intersections
    if (searchRect[axis].Min  // Min would be the Rect.Left if axis == 0, 
                              // Rect.Top if axis == 1
                < node.Plane) // The absolute coordinate of the split plane
    {
        FindRects(node.LeftChild, searchRect, intersectionRects);
    }

    // If the searchRect's boundary extends into the right bi-section of the node
    // we need to search the right sub-tree for intersections
    if (searchRect[axis].Max  // Max would be the Rect.Right if axis == 0
                              // Rect.Bottom if axis == 1
                > node.Plane) // The absolute coordinate of the split plane
    {
        FindRects(node.RightChild, searchRect, intersectionRects);
    }
}

This function should work once converted from pseudo-code, but the algorithm is correct. This is a log(n) search algorithm, and possibly the slowest implementation of it (convert from recursive to stack based).

-- UPDATE -- Added a simple KD-Tree building algorithm

The simplest form of a KD tree that contains area/volume shapes is the following:

Rect bounds = ...; // Calculate the bounding area of all shapes you want to 
              // store in the tree
int plane = 0; // Start by splitting on the x axis

BuildTree(_root, plane, bounds, insertRects);

function BuildTree(KDNode node, int plane, Rect nodeBds, List insertRects)

if (insertRects.size() < THRESHOLD /* Stop splitting when there are less than some
                                      number of rects. Experiment with this, but 3
                                      is usually a decent number */)
{
     AddRectsToNode(node, insertRects);
     node.IsLeaf = true;
     return;
}

float splitPos = nodeBds[plane].Min + (nodeBds[plane].Max - nodeBds[plane].Min) / 2;

// Once you have a split plane calculated, you want to split the insertRects list
// into a list of rectangles that have area left of the split plane, and a list of
// rects that have area to the right of the split plane.
// If a rect overlaps the split plane, add it to both lists
List leftRects, rightRects;
FillLists(insertRects, splitPos, plane, leftRects, rightRects); 

Rect leftBds, rightBds; // Split the nodeBds rect into 2 rects along the split plane

KDNode leftChild, rightChild; // Initialize these
// Build out the left sub-tree
BuildTree(leftChild, (plane + 1) % NUM_DIMS, // 2 for a 2d tree
          leftBds, leftRects);
// Build out the right sub-tree
BuildTree(rightChild, (plane + 1) % NUM_DIMS,
          rightBds, rightRects);

node.LeftChild = leftChild;
node.RightChild = rightChild;

There a bunch of obvious optimizations here, but build time is usually not as important as search time. That being said, a well build tree is what makes searching fast. Look up SAH-KD-Tree if you want to learn how to build a fast kd-tree.