如果使用Matlab，如果多边形顶点按顺时针顺序排列，函数ispolycw将返回true。

c#代码实现lhf的答案:

// https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_orientation#Orientation_of_a_simple_polygon
public static WindingOrder DetermineWindingOrder(IList<Vector2> vertices)
{
    int nVerts = vertices.Count;
    // If vertices duplicates first as last to represent closed polygon,
    // skip last.
    Vector2 lastV = vertices[nVerts - 1];
    if (lastV.Equals(vertices[0]))
        nVerts -= 1;
    int iMinVertex = FindCornerVertex(vertices);
    // Orientation matrix:
    //     [ 1  xa  ya ]
    // O = | 1  xb  yb |
    //     [ 1  xc  yc ]
    Vector2 a = vertices[WrapAt(iMinVertex - 1, nVerts)];
    Vector2 b = vertices[iMinVertex];
    Vector2 c = vertices[WrapAt(iMinVertex + 1, nVerts)];
    // determinant(O) = (xb*yc + xa*yb + ya*xc) - (ya*xb + yb*xc + xa*yc)
    double detOrient = (b.X * c.Y + a.X * b.Y + a.Y * c.X) - (a.Y * b.X + b.Y * c.X + a.X * c.Y);

    // TBD: check for "==0", in which case is not defined?
    // Can that happen?  Do we need to check other vertices / eliminate duplicate vertices?
    WindingOrder result = detOrient > 0
            ? WindingOrder.Clockwise
            : WindingOrder.CounterClockwise;
    return result;
}

public enum WindingOrder
{
    Clockwise,
    CounterClockwise
}

// Find vertex along one edge of bounding box.
// In this case, we find smallest y; in case of tie also smallest x.
private static int FindCornerVertex(IList<Vector2> vertices)
{
    int iMinVertex = -1;
    float minY = float.MaxValue;
    float minXAtMinY = float.MaxValue;
    for (int i = 0; i < vertices.Count; i++)
    {
        Vector2 vert = vertices[i];
        float y = vert.Y;
        if (y > minY)
            continue;
        if (y == minY)
            if (vert.X >= minXAtMinY)
                continue;

        // Minimum so far.
        iMinVertex = i;
        minY = y;
        minXAtMinY = vert.X;
    }

    return iMinVertex;
}

// Return value in (0..n-1).
// Works for i in (-n..+infinity).
// If need to allow more negative values, need more complex formula.
private static int WrapAt(int i, int n)
{
    // "+n": Moves (-n..) up to (0..).
    return (i + n) % n;
}

对于那些不想“重新发明轮子”的人，我认为值得一提的是，这个检查是在一个名为Shapely (github)的漂亮的Python包中实现的(它基于GEOS C/ c++库):

Shapely is a BSD-licensed Python package for manipulation and analysis of planar geometric objects. It is using the widely deployed open-source geometry library GEOS (the engine of PostGIS, and a port of JTS). Shapely wraps GEOS geometries and operations to provide both a feature rich Geometry interface for singular (scalar) geometries and higher-performance NumPy ufuncs for operations using arrays of geometries. Shapely is not primarily focused on data serialization formats or coordinate systems, but can be readily integrated with packages that are.

来源:https://shapely.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

一个给出OP坐标的小例子:

import numpy as np
from shapely.geometry import Polygon

points = np.array([
    (5,0),
    (6,4),
    (4,5),
    (1,5),
    (1,0)
])

P = Polygon(points)

这是新构造的多边形:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x,y = P.exterior.coords.xy
plt.plot(x,y)
plt.axis('equal')
plt.grid()
plt.show()

你可以直接使用LinearRing的is_ccw属性来检查多边形是CW还是CCW:

type(P.exterior)
>: shapely.geometry.polygon.LinearRing

P.exterior.is_ccw
>: True

如果颠倒:

points = np.flipud(points)
points
>: 
array([[1, 0],
       [1, 5],
       [4, 5],
       [6, 4],
       [5, 0]])


P1 = Polygon(points)

P1.exterior.is_ccw
>: True

进一步阅读的文档和参考资料:

shaely is_ccw (github): https://github.com/shapely/shapely/blob/eba985c6e0170ecdd90c83592fd0afa7ae793cb8/shapely/predicates.py#L72-L108 Libgeos (github): https://github.com/libgeos/geos GEOS API参考:https://libgeos.org/doxygen/classgeos_1_1algorithm_1_1Orientation.html#a5af93795969b80f97d7997195974d7c8 GEOS实现(github): https://github.com/libgeos/geos/blob/ab0ce6dafdf7f75ec6d234b6c65bb209037dda17/src/algorithm/Orientation.cpp#L43-L133

正如这篇维基百科文章中所解释的曲线方向，给定平面上的3个点p, q和r(即x和y坐标)，您可以计算以下行列式的符号

如果行列式为负(即定向(p, q, r) < 0)，则多边形是顺时针方向(CW)。如果行列式为正(即定向(p, q, r) > 0)，则多边形是逆时针方向(CCW)。如果点p, q和r共线，行列式为零(即定向(p, q, r) == 0)。

在上面的公式中，由于我们使用的是齐次坐标，我们将1放在p, q和r的坐标前面。

以下是基于上述答案的swift 3.0解决方案:

    for (i, point) in allPoints.enumerated() {
        let nextPoint = i == allPoints.count - 1 ? allPoints[0] : allPoints[i+1]
        signedArea += (point.x * nextPoint.y - nextPoint.x * point.y)
    }

    let clockwise  = signedArea < 0

从其中一个顶点开始，计算每条边对应的角度。

第一个和最后一个将是零(所以跳过它们);对于其余部分，角度的正弦值将由归一化与(点[n]-点[0])和(点[n-1]-点[0])的单位长度的叉乘给出。

如果这些值的和是正的，那么你的多边形是逆时针方向绘制的。