How to measure the shortest distance among different points using Matlab

Lets suppoese i have the points as shown by B. For example, P1(1,1,2 ), P2(1,2,3 ) etc as shown by B. I want to measure the shortest distance among these points.

x = B(:,1), y =B(:,2) and z = B(:,3).

Thanks in advance for support from community members. Regards!

B =
     1     1     3
     1     2     3
     2     3     1
     2     3     2
     3     1     1
     3     3     1
     3     3     2

[Sudhakar Shinde]

Checkout:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/16848-how-to-find-distance-between-two-points

[KSSV]

Read about pdist.

https://in.mathworks.com/help/stats/pdist.html

[M.S. Khan]

Thanks Sudkhakr Shinde and KSSV for your kind reply. Actually, we can use 'norm' function to measure distance between two points. But i want to measure the distance among all the points, then i want to pick the minimum distance. Please any help. Regards

[KSSV]

That's what pdist does....did you read the documentation?

[M.S. Khan]

Dear KSSV, i am trying to understand its documentation and then will apply. Thanks for your guidance. Regards!

Answer 1

[Jakob]

B = randi([-10 10],5,3); % just some random numbers
minimum = sqrt(sum((B(1,:)- B(2,:)).^2));
for i = 1 : size(B,1)-1
    for j = i+1 : size(B,1)
        minimum = min(minimum,sqrt(sum((B(i,:)- B(j,:)).^2)));
    end
end
disp(minimum)

[Jakob]

But thats basically pdist lol

[M.S. Khan]

Thanks KSSV, pdist() functions works. Thanks for reply Dear Jakob. your code and pdist() function works same.

[Jakob]

Hi again, sorry I can't reply in private to your email.

About your question:. "I think pdist2() can only be used for 2D, right.".

Be careful, pdist2() works different then pdist(), you can safely use

min(pdist(YOURMATRIX))

to measure the minimal distance for any dimension. It's basically the same as my code