Layout Adjacent Gap Measure
Measure signed physical adjacency gap from the first trailing edge to the second leading edge; negative means overlap along that axis.
Description
Measure signed physical adjacency gap from the first trailing edge to the second leading edge; negative means overlap along that axis.
A signed gap measures the second rectangle's leading edge relative to the first rectangle's trailing edge along one axis.
When to use this tool
Measure signed physical adjacency gap from the first trailing edge to the second leading edge; negative means overlap along that axis.
- Prepare the supplied first, second, vertical fields for this operation.
- Compare the complete example with the representation used by your own input before carrying the result into another step.
How to use the tool and how it works
- Enter first, second, vertical. Use the exact text syntax, units and index conventions explained below.
- Run the tool. If input validation fails, correct the supplied fields before interpreting any result.
- Read result.signedGap. Interpret false, null and empty lists using the distinctions below; they can be valid outputs.
Validate [x,y,width,height] rectangles. When vertical return second y minus first y+height; otherwise return second x minus first x+width.1
| Input field | Meaning and representation | Accepted input |
|---|---|---|
| first | first. | List of finite numbers; bounded by the operation |
| second | second. | List of finite numbers; bounded by the operation |
| vertical | Explicit choice for vertical; supply a boolean rather than a text label. | true or false |
| Output field | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| result | Object containing the named outputs below. |
| result.signedGap | The signed gap value under the stated formula or text convention. |
{
"input": {
"first": [
0,
0,
10,
2
],
"second": [
12,
0,
10,
2
],
"vertical": false
},
"output": {
"result": {
"signedGap": 2
}
}
}Limitations and assumptions
- A negative gap indicates axis overlap, not necessarily a two-dimensional collision. Alignment, margin collapse and DOM layout are not inspected.
- Rectangle arrays use [x,y,width,height] with nonnegative extents. All dimensions must use the same coordinate frame and unit; values are supplied rather than measured from a page.
- Every declared top-level field is required and unexpected fields are rejected. Numeric inputs must be finite; ordinary text fields are bounded to 8,192 UTF-16 code units, with tighter operation-specific limits where stated.
- String lists have at most 128 entries of at most 128 code units; matrices have at most 128 rows and columns. Larger numeric lists and parsed JSON have separate bounded budgets. Nonfinite results and excessively large serialized outputs are rejected.
- Indexes are zero-based and spans have an exclusive end unless explicitly stated otherwise. A valid false, null or empty-list result is distinct from malformed input.
Alternative or Complementary methods
Measure the actual layout when browser behavior matters. The formulas use supplied coordinates and explicit simplifications; they do not account for every box, writing mode, clipping ancestor or simultaneous layout change.
References
Similar or alternative tools
- Layout Gap from Target Width
Solve uniform inter-item gap for an exact target row width; preserve negative infeasibility instead of clamping.
- Layout Inset Content Rectangle
Compute axis-aligned inset content geometry, retaining an overconstrained flag when opposing insets exceed available size.