How can I find the smallest difference between two angles around a point? - language-agnostic

Question

Given a 2D circle with 2 angles in the range -PI -> PI around a coordinate, what is the value of the smallest angle between them?
Taking into account that the difference between PI and -PI is not 2 PI but zero.
An Example:
Imagine a circle, with 2 lines coming out from the center, there are 2 angles between those lines, the angle they make on the inside aka the smaller angle, and the angle they make on the outside, aka the bigger angle.
Both angles when added up make a full circle. Given that each angle can fit within a certain range, what is the smaller angles value, taking into account the rollover

Answer 1

This gives a signed angle for any angles:
a = targetA - sourceA
a = (a + 180) % 360 - 180
Beware in many languages the modulo operation returns a value with the same sign as the dividend (like C, C++, C#, JavaScript, full list here). This requires a custom mod function like so:
mod = (a, n) -> a - floor(a/n) * n
Or so:
mod = (a, n) -> (a % n + n) % n
If angles are within [-180, 180] this also works:
a = targetA - sourceA
a += (a>180) ? -360 : (a<-180) ? 360 : 0
In a more verbose way:
a = targetA - sourceA
a -= 360 if a > 180
a += 360 if a < -180

Answer 2

x is the target angle. y is the source or starting angle:
atan2(sin(x-y), cos(x-y))
It returns the signed delta angle. Note that depending on your API the order of the parameters for the atan2() function might be different.

Answer 3

If your two angles are x and y, then one of the angles between them is abs(x - y). The other angle is (2 * PI) - abs(x - y). So the value of the smallest of the 2 angles is:
min((2 * PI) - abs(x - y), abs(x - y))
This gives you the absolute value of the angle, and it assumes the inputs are normalized (ie: within the range [0, 2π)).
If you want to preserve the sign (ie: direction) of the angle and also accept angles outside the range [0, 2π) you can generalize the above. Here's Python code for the generalized version:
PI = math.pi
TAU = 2*PI
def smallestSignedAngleBetween(x, y):
a = (x - y) % TAU
b = (y - x) % TAU
return -a if a < b else b
Note that the % operator does not behave the same in all languages, particularly when negative values are involved, so if porting some sign adjustments may be necessary.

Answer 4

An efficient code in C++ that works for any angle and in both: radians and degrees is:
inline double getAbsoluteDiff2Angles(const double x, const double y, const double c)
{
// c can be PI (for radians) or 180.0 (for degrees);
return c - fabs(fmod(fabs(x - y), 2*c) - c);
}
See it working here:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/sbgxyfchjr
For signed angle:
return fmod(fabs(x - y) + c, 2*c) - c;
In some other programming languages where mod of negative numbers are positive, the inner abs can be eliminated.

Answer 5

I rise to the challenge of providing the signed answer:
def f(x,y):
import math
return min(y-x, y-x+2*math.pi, y-x-2*math.pi, key=abs)

Answer 6

For UnityEngine users, the easy way is just to use Mathf.DeltaAngle.

Answer 7

Arithmetical (as opposed to algorithmic) solution:
angle = Pi - abs(abs(a1 - a2) - Pi);

Answer 8

I absolutely love Peter B's answer above, but if you need a dead simple approach that produces the same results, here it is:
function absAngle(a) {
// this yields correct counter-clock-wise numbers, like 350deg for -370
return (360 + (a % 360)) % 360;
}
function angleDelta(a, b) {
// https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/a/4472
let delta = Math.abs(absAngle(a) - absAngle(b));
let sign = absAngle(a) > absAngle(b) || delta >= 180 ? -1 : 1;
return (180 - Math.abs(delta - 180)) * sign;
}
// sample output
for (let angle = -370; angle <= 370; angle+=20) {
let testAngle = 10;
console.log(testAngle, "->", angle, "=", angleDelta(testAngle, angle));
}
One thing to note is that I deliberately flipped the sign: counter-clockwise deltas are negative, and clockwise ones are positive

Answer 9

There is no need to compute trigonometric functions. The simple code in C language is:
#include <math.h>
#define PIV2 M_PI+M_PI
#define C360 360.0000000000000000000
double difangrad(double x, double y)
{
double arg;
arg = fmod(y-x, PIV2);
if (arg < 0 ) arg = arg + PIV2;
if (arg > M_PI) arg = arg - PIV2;
return (-arg);
}
double difangdeg(double x, double y)
{
double arg;
arg = fmod(y-x, C360);
if (arg < 0 ) arg = arg + C360;
if (arg > 180) arg = arg - C360;
return (-arg);
}
let dif = a - b , in radians
dif = difangrad(a,b);
let dif = a - b , in degrees
dif = difangdeg(a,b);
difangdeg(180.000000 , -180.000000) = 0.000000
difangdeg(-180.000000 , 180.000000) = -0.000000
difangdeg(359.000000 , 1.000000) = -2.000000
difangdeg(1.000000 , 359.000000) = 2.000000
No sin, no cos, no tan,.... only geometry!!!!

Answer 10

A simple method, which I use in C++ is:
double deltaOrientation = angle1 - angle2;
double delta = remainder(deltaOrientation, 2*M_PI);