Orientation of 3 ordered points

Given three points p1, p2 and p3, the task is to determine the orientation of these three points.

Orientation of an ordered triplet of points in the plane can be

• counterclockwise
• clockwise
• collinear

The following diagram shows different possible orientations of (a,b,c)

If orientation of (p1, p2, p3) is collinear, then orientation of (p3, p2, p1) is also collinear. 
If orientation of (p1, p2, p3) is clockwise, then orientation of (p3, p2, p1) is counterclockwise and vice versa is also true.

Example:

Input:   p1 = {0, 0}, p2 = {4, 4}, p3 = {1, 2}
Output:  CounterClockWise

Input:   p1 = {0, 0}, p2 = {4, 4}, p3 = {1, 1}
Output:  Collinear

How to compute Orientation?

The idea is to use slope.  

Slope of line segment (p1, p2): σ = (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)
Slope of line segment (p2, p3): τ = (y3 - y2)/(x3 - x2)

If  σ > τ, the orientation is clockwise (right turn)

Using above values of σ and τ, we can conclude that, 
the orientation depends on sign of  below expression: 

(y2 - y1)*(x3 - x2) - (y3 - y2)*(x2 - x1)

Above expression is negative when σ < τ, i.e.,  counterclockwise

Below is the implementation of above idea. 

C++

// A C++ program to find orientation of three points
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

struct Point {
    int x, y;
};

// To find orientation of ordered triplet (p1, p2, p3).
// The function returns following values
// 0 --> p, q and r are collinear
// 1 --> Clockwise
// 2 --> Counterclockwise
int orientation(Point p1, Point p2, Point p3)
{
    // See 10th slides from following link for derivation
    // of the formula
    int val = (p2.y - p1.y) * (p3.x - p2.x)
              - (p2.x - p1.x) * (p3.y - p2.y);

    if (val == 0)
        return 0; // collinear

    return (val > 0) ? 1 : 2; // clock or counterclock wise
}

// Driver program to test above functions
int main()
{
    Point p1 = { 0, 0 }, p2 = { 4, 4 }, p3 = { 1, 2 };
    int o = orientation(p1, p2, p3);
    if (o == 0)
        cout << "Linear";
    else if (o == 1)
        cout << "Clockwise";
    else
        cout << "CounterClockwise";
    cout << endl;

    p1 = { 0, 0 }, p2 = { 4, 4 }, p3 = { 1, 1 };
    o = orientation(p1, p2, p3);
    if (o == 0)
        cout << "Linear";
    else if (o == 1)
        cout << "Clockwise";
    else
        cout << "CounterClockwise";
    cout << endl;

    p1 = { 1, 2 }, p2 = { 4, 4 }, p3 = { 0, 0 };
    o = orientation(p1, p2, p3);
    if (o == 0)
        cout << "Linear";
    else if (o == 1)
        cout << "Clockwise";
    else
        cout << "CounterClockwise";
    return 0;
}

Java

// JAVA Code to find Orientation of 3
// ordered points
class Point
{
    int x, y;
    Point(int x,int y){
        this.x=x;
        this.y=y;
    }
}

class GFG {

    // To find orientation of ordered triplet
    // (p1, p2, p3). The function returns
    // following values
    // 0 --> p, q and r are collinear
    // 1 --> Clockwise
    // 2 --> Counterclockwise
    public static int orientation(Point p1, Point p2,
                                         Point p3)
    {
        // See 10th slides from following link
        // for derivation of the formula
        int val = (p2.y - p1.y) * (p3.x - p2.x) -
                  (p2.x - p1.x) * (p3.y - p2.y);

        if (val == 0) return 0;  // collinear

        // clock or counterclock wise
        return (val > 0)? 1: 2;
    }

    /* Driver program to test above function */
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
            Point p1 = new Point(0, 0);
            Point p2 = new Point(4, 4);
            Point p3 = new Point(1, 2);

            int o = orientation(p1, p2, p3);

            if (o==0)
            System.out.print("Linear");
            else if (o == 1)
            System.out.print("Clockwise");
            else
            System.out.print("CounterClockwise");

    }
}

//This code is contributed by Arnav Kr. Mandal.

Python3

# A Python3 program to find orientation of 3 points
class Point:

    # to store the x and y coordinates of a point
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y

def orientation(p1, p2, p3):

    # to find the orientation of
    # an ordered triplet (p1,p2,p3)
    # function returns the following values:
    # 0 : Collinear points
    # 1 : Clockwise points
    # 2 : Counterclockwise
    val = (float(p2.y - p1.y) * (p3.x - p2.x)) - \
           (float(p2.x - p1.x) * (p3.y - p2.y))
    if (val > 0):

        # Clockwise orientation
        return 1
    elif (val < 0):

        # Counterclockwise orientation
        return 2
    else:

        # Collinear orientation
        return 0

# Driver code
p1 = Point(0, 0)
p2 = Point(4, 4)
p3 = Point(1, 2)

o = orientation(p1, p2, p3)

if (o == 0):
    print("Linear")
elif (o == 1):
    print("Clockwise")
else:
    print("CounterClockwise")

# This code is contributed by Ansh Riyal

C#

// C# Code to find Orientation of 3
// ordered points
using System;
public class Point
{
    public int x, y;
    public Point(int x,int y)
    {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
    }
}

class GFG
{

    // To find orientation of ordered triplet
    // (p1, p2, p3). The function returns
    // following values
    // 0 --> p, q and r are collinear
    // 1 --> Clockwise
    // 2 --> Counterclockwise
    public static int orientation(Point p1, Point p2,
                                        Point p3)
    {
        // See 10th slides from following link
        // for derivation of the formula
        int val = (p2.y - p1.y) * (p3.x - p2.x) -
                (p2.x - p1.x) * (p3.y - p2.y);

        if (val == 0) return 0; // collinear

        // clock or counterclock wise
        return (val > 0)? 1: 2;
    }

    /* Driver program to test above function */<strong>
    public static void Main(String[] args)
    {
            Point p1 = new Point(0, 0);
            Point p2 = new Point(4, 4);
            Point p3 = new Point(1, 2);

            int o = orientation(p1, p2, p3);

            if (o == 0)
                Console.WriteLine("Linear");
            else if (o == 1)
                Console.WriteLine("Clockwise");
            else
                Console.WriteLine("CounterClockwise");

    }
}

/* This code contributed by PrinciRaj1992 */

Javascript

<script>
// javascript Code to find Orientation of 3
// ordered points

class Point {
  constructor(x, y) {
    this.x = x;
    this.y = y;
  }
}


// To find orientation of ordered triplet
// (p1, p2, p3). The function returns
// following values
// 0 --> p, q and r are collinear
// 1 --> Clockwise
// 2 --> Counterclockwise
function orientation(p1, p2, p3) {
  // See 10th slides from following link
  // for derivation of the formula
  let val = (p2.y - p1.y) * (p3.x - p2.x) -
    (p2.x - p1.x) * (p3.y - p2.y);

  if (val == 0) return 0; // collinear

  // clock or counterclock wise
  return (val > 0) ? 1 : 2;
}

/* Driver program to test above function */
let p1 = new Point(0, 0);
let p2 = new Point(4, 4);
let p3 = new Point(1, 2);

let o = orientation(p1, p2, p3);

if (o == 0)
  document.write("Linear");
else if (o == 1)
  document.write("Clockwise");
else
  document.write("CounterClockwise");

// This code is contributed by Saurabh Jaiswal
</script>

Output

CounterClockwise
Linear
Clockwise

Time Complexity: O(1)
Auxiliary Space: O(1)

The concept of orientation is used in below articles: 

• Find Simple Closed Path for a given set of points
• How to check if two given line segments intersect?
• Convex Hull | Set 1 (Jarvis’s Algorithm or Wrapping)
• Convex Hull | Set 2 (Graham Scan)

This article is contributed by Rajeev Agrawal. Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above