本想在GLSL中这样做，但如果可能的话，最好避免所有这些条件。使用clamp()可以避免两种端点情况:

// find closest point to P on line segment AB:
vec3 closest_point_on_line_segment(in vec3 P, in vec3 A, in vec3 B) {
    vec3 AP = P - A, AB = B - A;
    float l = dot(AB, AB);
    if (l <= 0.0000001) return A;    // A and B are practically the same
    return AP - AB*clamp(dot(AP, AB)/l, 0.0, 1.0);  // do the projection
}

如果您可以确定A和B彼此不会非常接近，则可以简化为删除If()。事实上，即使A和B是相同的，我的GPU仍然给出了这个无条件版本的正确结果(但这是使用pre-OpenGL 4.1，其中GLSL除零是未定义的):

// find closest point to P on line segment AB:
vec3 closest_point_on_line_segment(in vec3 P, in vec3 A, in vec3 B) {
    vec3 AP = P - A, AB = B - A;
    return AP - AB*clamp(dot(AP, AB)/dot(AB, AB), 0.0, 1.0);
}

计算距离是很简单的——GLSL提供了一个distance()函数，你可以在这个最近的点和P。

灵感来自Iñigo Quilez的胶囊距离函数代码

I'm assuming you want to find the shortest distance between the point and a line segment; to do this, you need to find the line (lineA) which is perpendicular to your line segment (lineB) which goes through your point, determine the intersection between that line (lineA) and your line which goes through your line segment (lineB); if that point is between the two points of your line segment, then the distance is the distance between your point and the point you just found which is the intersection of lineA and lineB; if the point is not between the two points of your line segment, you need to get the distance between your point and the closer of two ends of the line segment; this can be done easily by taking the square distance (to avoid a square root) between the point and the two points of the line segment; whichever is closer, take the square root of that one.

嘿，我昨天才写的。它在Actionscript 3.0中，基本上是Javascript，尽管你可能没有相同的Point类。

//st = start of line segment
//b = the line segment (as in: st + b = end of line segment)
//pt = point to test
//Returns distance from point to line segment.  
//Note: nearest point on the segment to the test point is right there if we ever need it
public static function linePointDist( st:Point, b:Point, pt:Point ):Number
{
    var nearestPt:Point; //closest point on seqment to pt

    var keyDot:Number = dot( b, pt.subtract( st ) ); //key dot product
    var bLenSq:Number = dot( b, b ); //Segment length squared

    if( keyDot <= 0 )  //pt is "behind" st, use st
    {
        nearestPt = st  
    }
    else if( keyDot >= bLenSq ) //pt is "past" end of segment, use end (notice we are saving twin sqrts here cuz)
    {
        nearestPt = st.add(b);
    }
    else //pt is inside segment, reuse keyDot and bLenSq to get percent of seqment to move in to find closest point
    {
        var keyDotToPctOfB:Number = keyDot/bLenSq; //REM dot product comes squared
        var partOfB:Point = new Point( b.x * keyDotToPctOfB, b.y * keyDotToPctOfB );
        nearestPt = st.add(partOfB);
    }

    var dist:Number = (pt.subtract(nearestPt)).length;

    return dist;
}

此外，这里有一个关于这个问题的相当完整和可读的讨论:notejot.com

这是一个自成体系的Delphi / Pascal版本的函数，基于上面约书亚的答案。使用TPoint用于VCL屏幕图形，但应该易于根据需要进行调整。

function DistancePtToSegment( pt, pt1, pt2: TPoint): double;
var
   a, b, c, d: double;
   len_sq: double;
   param: double;
   xx, yy: double;
   dx, dy: double;
begin
   a := pt.x - pt1.x;
   b := pt.y - pt1.y;
   c := pt2.x - pt1.x;
   d := pt2.y - pt1.y;

   len_sq := (c * c) + (d * d);
   param := -1;

   if (len_sq <> 0) then
   begin
      param := ((a * c) + (b * d)) / len_sq;
   end;

   if param < 0 then
   begin
      xx := pt1.x;
      yy := pt1.y;
   end
   else if param > 1 then
   begin
      xx := pt2.x;
      yy := pt2.y;
   end
   else begin
      xx := pt1.x + param * c;
      yy := pt1.y + param * d;
   end;

   dx := pt.x - xx;
   dy := pt.y - yy;
   result := sqrt( (dx * dx) + (dy * dy))
end;

和这个答案一样，只是用的是Visual Basic。使其可作为Microsoft Excel和VBA/宏中的用户定义函数使用。

函数返回点(x,y)到由(x1,y1)和(x2,y2)定义的线段的最近距离。

Function DistanceToSegment(x As Double, y As Double, x1 As Double, y1 As Double, x2 As Double, y2 As Double)

  Dim A As Double
  A = x - x1
  Dim B As Double
  B = y - y1
  Dim C  As Double
  C = x2 - x1
  Dim D As Double
  D = y2 - y1

  Dim dot As Double
  dot = A * C + B * D
  Dim len_sq As Double
  len_sq = C * C + D * D
  Dim param As Double
  param = -1

  If (len_sq <> 0) Then
      param = dot / len_sq
  End If

  Dim xx As Double
  Dim yy As Double

  If (param < 0) Then
    xx = x1
    yy = y1
  ElseIf (param > 1) Then
    xx = x2
    yy = y2
  Else
    xx = x1 + param * C
    yy = y1 + param * D
  End If

  Dim dx As Double
  dx = x - xx
  Dim dy As Double
  dy = y - yy

  DistanceToSegment = Math.Sqr(dx * dx + dy * dy)

End Function

2D坐标数组的Python Numpy实现:

import numpy as np


def dist2d(p1, p2, coords):
    ''' Distance from points to a finite line btwn p1 -> p2 '''
    assert coords.ndim == 2 and coords.shape[1] == 2, 'coords is not 2 dim'
    dp = p2 - p1
    st = dp[0]**2 + dp[1]**2
    u = ((coords[:, 0] - p1[0]) * dp[0] + (coords[:, 1] - p1[1]) * dp[1]) / st

    u[u > 1.] = 1.
    u[u < 0.] = 0.

    dx = (p1[0] + u * dp[0]) - coords[:, 0]
    dy = (p1[1] + u * dp[1]) - coords[:, 1]

    return np.sqrt(dx**2 + dy**2)


# Usage:
p1 = np.array([0., 0.])
p2 = np.array([0., 10.])

# List of coordinates
coords = np.array(
    [[0., 0.],
     [5., 5.],
     [10., 10.],
     [20., 20.]
     ])

d = dist2d(p1, p2, coords)

# Single coordinate
coord = np.array([25., 25.])
d = dist2d(p1, p2, coord[np.newaxis, :])