Hi,
This is a classic interval subtraction problem. For each interval in 'A', remove any overlaps with intervals in 'B'.
Below is a MATLAB solution that works for the case described:
A = [1 5; 6 8; 10 13; 14 17];
B = [2 3; 8 12; 18 20];
C = [];
for i = 1:size(A,1)
seg_start = A(i,1);
seg_end = A(i,2);
intervals = [seg_start seg_end];
for j = 1:size(B,1)
b_start = B(j,1);
b_end = B(j,2);
% No overlap
if b_end <= intervals(1) || b_start >= intervals(2)
continue;
end
% Overlap at the start
if b_start > intervals(1) && b_start < intervals(2)
intervals = [intervals(1) b_start; b_start intervals(2)];
end
% Overlap at the end
if b_end > intervals(1) && b_end < intervals(2)
intervals = [intervals(1) b_end; b_end intervals(2)];
end
% Remove the overlap
mask = ~(intervals(:,1) < b_end & intervals(:,2) > b_start);
intervals = intervals(mask,:);
end
C = [C; intervals];
end
% Remove zero or negative-length intervals (if any)
C = C(C(:,2) > C(:,1), :);
disp(C);
I hope this helps!
