[algorithm] How do I calculate a point on a circle’s circumference?

How can the following function be implemented in various languages?

Calculate the (x,y) point on the circumference of a circle, given input values of:

  • Radius
  • Angle
  • Origin (optional parameter, if supported by the language)

This question is related to algorithm math trigonometry

The answer is


Here is my implementation in C#:

    public static PointF PointOnCircle(float radius, float angleInDegrees, PointF origin)
    {
        // Convert from degrees to radians via multiplication by PI/180        
        float x = (float)(radius * Math.Cos(angleInDegrees * Math.PI / 180F)) + origin.X;
        float y = (float)(radius * Math.Sin(angleInDegrees * Math.PI / 180F)) + origin.Y;

        return new PointF(x, y);
    }

Calculating point around circumference of circle given distance travelled.
For comparison... This may be useful in Game AI when moving around a solid object in a direct path.

enter image description here

public static Point DestinationCoordinatesArc(Int32 startingPointX, Int32 startingPointY,
    Int32 circleOriginX, Int32 circleOriginY, float distanceToMove,
    ClockDirection clockDirection, float radius)
{
    // Note: distanceToMove and radius parameters are float type to avoid integer division
    // which will discard remainder

    var theta = (distanceToMove / radius) * (clockDirection == ClockDirection.Clockwise ? 1 : -1);
    var destinationX = circleOriginX + (startingPointX - circleOriginX) * Math.Cos(theta) - (startingPointY - circleOriginY) * Math.Sin(theta);
    var destinationY = circleOriginY + (startingPointX - circleOriginX) * Math.Sin(theta) + (startingPointY - circleOriginY) * Math.Cos(theta);

    // Round to avoid integer conversion truncation
    return new Point((Int32)Math.Round(destinationX), (Int32)Math.Round(destinationY));
}

/// <summary>
/// Possible clock directions.
/// </summary>
public enum ClockDirection
{
    [Description("Time moving forwards.")]
    Clockwise,
    [Description("Time moving moving backwards.")]
    CounterClockwise
}

private void ButtonArcDemo_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Brush aBrush = (Brush)Brushes.Black;
    Graphics g = this.CreateGraphics();

    var startingPointX = 125;
    var startingPointY = 75;
    for (var count = 0; count < 62; count++)
    {
        var point = DestinationCoordinatesArc(
            startingPointX: startingPointX, startingPointY: startingPointY,
            circleOriginX: 75, circleOriginY: 75,
            distanceToMove: 5,
            clockDirection: ClockDirection.Clockwise, radius: 50);
        g.FillRectangle(aBrush, point.X, point.Y, 1, 1);

        startingPointX = point.X;
        startingPointY = point.Y;

        // Pause to visually observe/confirm clock direction
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(35);

        Debug.WriteLine($"DestinationCoordinatesArc({point.X}, {point.Y}");
    }
}

Implemented in JavaScript (ES6):

/**
    * Calculate x and y in circle's circumference
    * @param {Object} input - The input parameters
    * @param {number} input.radius - The circle's radius
    * @param {number} input.angle - The angle in degrees
    * @param {number} input.cx - The circle's origin x
    * @param {number} input.cy - The circle's origin y
    * @returns {Array[number,number]} The calculated x and y
*/
function pointsOnCircle({ radius, angle, cx, cy }){

    angle = angle * ( Math.PI / 180 ); // Convert from Degrees to Radians
    const x = cx + radius * Math.sin(angle);
    const y = cy + radius * Math.cos(angle);
    return [ x, y ];

}

Usage:

const [ x, y ] = pointsOnCircle({ radius: 100, angle: 180, cx: 150, cy: 150 });
console.log( x, y );

Codepen

_x000D_
_x000D_
/**
 * Calculate x and y in circle's circumference
 * @param {Object} input - The input parameters
 * @param {number} input.radius - The circle's radius
 * @param {number} input.angle - The angle in degrees
 * @param {number} input.cx - The circle's origin x
 * @param {number} input.cy - The circle's origin y
 * @returns {Array[number,number]} The calculated x and y
 */
function pointsOnCircle({ radius, angle, cx, cy }){
  angle = angle * ( Math.PI / 180 ); // Convert from Degrees to Radians
  const x = cx + radius * Math.sin(angle);
  const y = cy + radius * Math.cos(angle);
  return [ x, y ];
}

const canvas = document.querySelector("canvas");
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");

function draw( x, y ){

  ctx.clearRect( 0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height );
  ctx.beginPath();
  ctx.strokeStyle = "orange";
  ctx.arc( 100, 100, 80, 0, 2 * Math.PI);
  ctx.lineWidth = 3;
  ctx.stroke();
  ctx.closePath();

  ctx.beginPath();
  ctx.fillStyle = "indigo";
  ctx.arc( x, y, 6, 0, 2 * Math.PI);
  ctx.fill();
  ctx.closePath();
  
}

let angle = 0;  // In degrees
setInterval(function(){

  const [ x, y ] = pointsOnCircle({ radius: 80, angle: angle++, cx: 100, cy: 100 });
  console.log( x, y );
  draw( x, y );
  document.querySelector("#degrees").innerHTML = angle + "&deg;";
  document.querySelector("#points").textContent = x.toFixed() + "," + y.toFixed();

}, 100 );
_x000D_
<p>Degrees: <span id="degrees">0</span></p>
<p>Points on Circle (x,y): <span id="points">0,0</span></p>
<canvas width="200" height="200" style="border: 1px solid"></canvas>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


Who needs trig when you have complex numbers:

#include <complex.h>
#include <math.h>

#define PI      3.14159265358979323846

typedef complex double Point;

Point point_on_circle ( double radius, double angle_in_degrees, Point centre )
{
    return centre + radius * cexp ( PI * I * ( angle_in_degrees  / 180.0 ) );
}

Examples related to algorithm

How can I tell if an algorithm is efficient? Find the smallest positive integer that does not occur in a given sequence Efficiently getting all divisors of a given number Peak signal detection in realtime timeseries data What is the optimal algorithm for the game 2048? How can I sort a std::map first by value, then by key? Finding square root without using sqrt function? Fastest way to flatten / un-flatten nested JSON objects Mergesort with Python Find common substring between two strings

Examples related to math

How to do perspective fixing? How to pad a string with leading zeros in Python 3 How can I use "e" (Euler's number) and power operation in python 2.7 numpy max vs amax vs maximum Efficiently getting all divisors of a given number Using atan2 to find angle between two vectors How to calculate percentage when old value is ZERO Finding square root without using sqrt function? Exponentiation in Python - should I prefer ** operator instead of math.pow and math.sqrt? How do I get the total number of unique pairs of a set in the database?

Examples related to trigonometry

How to calculate the angle between a line and the horizontal axis? Calculating the position of points in a circle 2D Euclidean vector rotations How does C compute sin() and other math functions? How to use the PI constant in C++ How do I calculate a point on a circle’s circumference? What is the method for converting radians to degrees?