Need serious help, Finding the distance from a point to a line

[Wizard1988]

Does anyone know how I could figure out the distance from a point inside a rectangle to the closest edge of the rectangle.

This is for a program in which you have virtual boats moving on a virtual lake. However I am having some major problems with stopping the boats from running off of the edge.

I have written some code here, but i don't think it works the right way.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

public class Rectangle 
{
	private long width;
	private long height;
	private Point tLeft, tRight, bLeft, bRight;
	
	public Rectangle(long width, long height)
	{
		this.width 	= width;
		this.height = height;
		this.tLeft 	= new Point((width/2)*-1,(height/2));
		this.tRight = new Point((width/2), (height/2));
		this.bLeft 	= new Point(((width/2)*-1),((height/2)*-1));
		this.bRight = new Point((width/2),((height/2)*-1));
	}
	
	public long isNearEdge(Point p, Point mOffset)
	{
		long north 	= this.height;
		long south 	= this.height;
		long east 	= this.width;
		long west 	= this.width;
		
		Point temporary = new Point();
		
		//Check distance form the north edge
		for(long x=(this.width/2*-1); x<(this.width/2);x++)
		{
			temporary.setPoint((long)x,tLeft.getY());
			if(temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset))<north)
			{
				north = temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset));
			}
		}
		//Check distance from the south edge
		for(long x=(this.width/2*-1); x<(this.width/2);x++)
		{
			temporary.setPoint((long)x,bLeft.getY());
			if(temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset))<south)
			{
				south = temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset));
			}
		}
		//Check distance from the west edge
		for(long x=(this.height/2*-1); x<(this.height/2);x++)
		{
			temporary.setPoint(tLeft.getX(),x);
			if(temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset))<west)
			{
				west = temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset));
			}
		}
		//Check distance from the east edge
		for(long x=(this.height/2*-1); x<(this.height/2);x++)
		{
			temporary.setPoint(tRight.getX(),x);
			if(temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset))<east)
			{
				east = temporary.getDistance(p.addPoints(mOffset));
			}
		}
		
		long temp1 = 0;
		long temp2 = 0;
		
		if(north>south)
		{
			temp1 = north;
		}
		else
		{
			temp1 = south;
		}
		
		if(west>east)
		{
			temp2 = west;
		}
		else
		{
			temp2 = east;
		}
		
		if(temp1>temp2)
		{
			return temp1;
		}
		else
		{
			return temp2;
		}
	}
}

Thanks in advance

[Joe Beam]

For loops are unecessary.

Point check = p.addPoint(mOffset);
// to check if inside rectangle
if(check.getX() > tRight.getX() || check.getX < tLeft.getX() || check.getY() > tRight.getY() || check.getY() < bRight.getY()){
  //check is outside rectangle assuming rectangle is level 
}else{
  //check is inside
}

Now if you wanted to return the distance to the closest edge it would get trickier. But you would not need to check the distance from every point on the line. You could put this code where you know the check is inside the rectangle. I'd break it up into quadrants and using the properties of a rectangle check which edge it's closest too.

//since you have the origin (0,0) at the center
if(check.getX > 0 && check.getY > 0){
  //quadrant 1
  xdiff = tRight.getX - check.getX;
  ydiff = tRight.getY - check.getY;
  return (xdiff < ydiff ? xdiff : ydiff)
}else if(check.getX < 0 && check.getY > 0){
  //quadrant 2
  xdiff = (tLeft.getX - check.getX) * -1; //get absolute value
  ydiff = tRight.getY - check.getY;
  return (xdiff < ydiff ? xdiff : ydiff)
}else if(...){
  //quadrant 3
}else if(...){
  //quadrant 4
}else{
 //handle cases where it's on x-axis or y-axis or both (0,0)
}

[Wizard1988]

Thanks alot!!