Rectangle Geometry

Most problems in this category include only two or three squares or rectangles, in which case you can simply draw out cases on paper. This should logically lead to a solution.

Example - Fence Painting

Slow Solution

Time Complexity: $\mathcal{O}(\text{max coordinate})$

Fast Solution

Time Complexity: $\mathcal{O}(1)$

Example - Blocked Billboard

Think of this as the 2D analog of the previous example.

Slow Solution

Time Complexity: $\mathcal{O}((\text{max coordinate})^2)$

Fast Solution

Time Complexity: $\mathcal{O}(1)$

Common Formulas

Certain tasks show up often in rectangle geometry problems. For example, many problems involve finding the overlapping area of two or more rectangles based on their coordinate points, or determining whether two rectangles intersect. Here, we'll discuss these formulas.

Note that these formulas only apply to rectangles which have sides parallel to the coordinate axes.

Finding area

The formula for finding the area of an individual rectangle is $w \cdot l$.

$\texttt{length}$ is the length of the vertical sides, and $\texttt{width}$ is the length of the horizontal sides.

1. $\texttt{width} = \texttt{tr}_x - \texttt{bl}_x$
2. $\texttt{length} = \texttt{tr}_y - \texttt{bl}_y$
3. $\texttt{area} = \texttt{width} \cdot \texttt{length}$

Implementation

Copy
long long area(int bl_x, int bl_y, int tr_x, int tr_y) {
	long long length = tr_y - bl_y;
	long long width = tr_x - bl_x;
	return length * width;
}

Copy
int area(int bl_x, int bl_y, int tr_x, int tr_y) {
	int length = tr_y - bl_y;
	int width = tr_x - bl_x;
	return length * width;
}

Copy
def area(bl_x: int, bl_y: int, tr_x: int, tr_y: int) -> int:
	length = tr_y - bl_y
	width = tr_x - bl_x
	return length * width

Checking if two rectangles intersect

Given two rectangles $a$ and $b$, there are only two cases where they do not intersect:

1. $\texttt{tr}_{a_y}$ $\leq$ $\texttt{bl}_{b_y}$ or $\texttt{bl}_{a_y}$ $\geq$ $\texttt{tr}_{b_y}$.
2. $\texttt{bl}_{a_x}$ $\geq$ $\texttt{tr}_{b_x}$ or $\texttt{tr}_{a_x}$ $\leq$ $\texttt{bl}_{b_x}$.

In all other cases, the rectangles intersect.

Implementation

Copy
bool intersect(vector<int> s1, vector<int> s2) {
	int bl_a_x = s1[0], bl_a_y = s1[1], tr_a_x = s1[2], tr_a_y = s1[3];
	int bl_b_x = s2[0], bl_b_y = s2[1], tr_b_x = s2[2], tr_b_y = s2[3];
	
	// no overlap
	if (bl_a_x >= tr_b_x || tr_a_x <= bl_b_x 
			|| bl_a_y >= tr_b_y || tr_a_y <= bl_b_y) {
		return false;
	} else {
		return true;
	}
}

Copy
boolean intersect(int[] s1, int[] s2) {
	int bl_a_x = s1[0], bl_a_y = s1[1], tr_a_x = s1[2], tr_a_y = s1[3];
	int bl_b_x = s2[0], bl_b_y = s2[1], tr_b_x = s2[2], tr_b_y = s2[3];
	
	// no overlap
	if (bl_a_x >= tr_b_x || tr_a_x <= bl_b_x 
			|| bl_a_y >= tr_b_y || tr_a_y <= bl_b_y) {
		return false;
	} else {
		return true;
	}
}

Copy
def intersect(s1, s2) -> bool:
	bl_a_x, bl_a_y, tr_a_x, tr_a_y = s1[0], s1[1], s1[2], s1[3]
	bl_b_x, bl_b_y, tr_b_x, tr_b_y = s2[0], s2[1], s2[2], s2[3]
	
	# no overlap
	if (bl_a_x >= tr_b_x or tr_a_x <= bl_b_x
			or bl_a_y >= tr_b_y or tr_a_y <= bl_b_y):
		return False
	else:
		return True

Finding area of intersection

We'll assume that the shape formed by the intersection of two rectangles is itself a rectangle.

First, we'll find this rectangle's length and width. $\texttt{width} = \min(\texttt{tr}_{a_x}, \texttt{tr}_{b_x}) - \max(\texttt{bl}_{a_x}, \texttt{bl}_{b_x})$. $\texttt{length} = \min(\texttt{tr}_{a_y}, \texttt{tr}_{b_y}) - \max(\texttt{bl}_{a_y}, \texttt{bl}_{b_y})$.

If either of these values are negative, the rectangles do not intersect. If they are zero, the rectangles intersect at a single point. Multiply the length and width to find the overlapping area.

Implementation

Copy
int inter_area(vector<int> s1, vector<int> s2) {
	int bl_a_x = s1[0], bl_a_y = s1[1], tr_a_x = s1[2], tr_a_y = s1[3];
	int bl_b_x = s2[0], bl_b_y = s2[1], tr_b_x = s2[2], tr_b_y = s2[3];

	return (
		(min(tr_a_x, tr_b_x) - max(bl_a_x, bl_b_x)) 
		* (min(tr_a_y, tr_b_y) - max(bl_a_y, bl_b_y))
	);
}

Copy
def inter_area(s1, s2) -> int:
	bl_a_x, bl_a_y, tr_a_x, tr_a_y = s1[0], s1[1], s1[2], s1[3]
	bl_b_x, bl_b_y, tr_b_x, tr_b_y = s2[0], s2[1], s2[2], s2[3]
	
	return (
		(min(tr_a_x, tr_b_x) - max(bl_a_x, bl_b_x))
		* (min(tr_a_y, tr_b_y) - max(bl_a_y, bl_b_y))
	)

Copy
int interArea(int[] s1, int[] s2) {
	int bl_a_x = s1[0], bl_a_y = s1[1], tr_a_x = s1[2], tr_a_y = s1[3]; 
	int bl_b_x = s2[0], bl_b_y = s2[1], tr_b_x = s2[2], tr_b_y = s2[3];
	return (
		(Math.min(tr_a_x, tr_b_x) - Math.max(bl_a_x, bl_b_x)) 
		* (Math.min(tr_a_y, tr_b_y) - Math.max(bl_a_y, bl_b_y))
	);
}

Problems