nirg回答的Swift版本:

extension CGPoint {
    func isInsidePolygon(vertices: [CGPoint]) -> Bool {
        guard !vertices.isEmpty else { return false }
        var j = vertices.last!, c = false
        for i in vertices {
            let a = (i.y > y) != (j.y > y)
            let b = (x < (j.x - i.x) * (y - i.y) / (j.y - i.y) + i.x)
            if a && b { c = !c }
            j = i
        }
        return c
    }
}

简单的解决方案是将多边形划分为三角形，并按这里解释的那样对三角形进行测试

如果你的多边形是凸多边形，可能有更好的方法。把这个多边形看作是无限条线的集合。每一行将空间一分为二。对于每一个点，很容易判断它是在直线的一边还是另一边。如果一个点在所有直线的同一侧，那么它在多边形内。

我知道这是旧的，但这里是一个在Cocoa实现的光线投射算法，如果有人感兴趣的话。不确定这是最有效的方法，但它可能会帮助别人。

- (BOOL)shape:(NSBezierPath *)path containsPoint:(NSPoint)point
{
    NSBezierPath *currentPath = [path bezierPathByFlatteningPath];
    BOOL result;
    float aggregateX = 0; //I use these to calculate the centroid of the shape
    float aggregateY = 0;
    NSPoint firstPoint[1];
    [currentPath elementAtIndex:0 associatedPoints:firstPoint];
    float olderX = firstPoint[0].x;
    float olderY = firstPoint[0].y;
    NSPoint interPoint;
    int noOfIntersections = 0;

    for (int n = 0; n < [currentPath elementCount]; n++) {
        NSPoint points[1];
        [currentPath elementAtIndex:n associatedPoints:points];
        aggregateX += points[0].x;
        aggregateY += points[0].y;
    }

    for (int n = 0; n < [currentPath elementCount]; n++) {
        NSPoint points[1];

        [currentPath elementAtIndex:n associatedPoints:points];
        //line equations in Ax + By = C form
        float _A_FOO = (aggregateY/[currentPath elementCount]) - point.y;  
        float _B_FOO = point.x - (aggregateX/[currentPath elementCount]);
        float _C_FOO = (_A_FOO * point.x) + (_B_FOO * point.y);

        float _A_BAR = olderY - points[0].y;
        float _B_BAR = points[0].x - olderX;
        float _C_BAR = (_A_BAR * olderX) + (_B_BAR * olderY);

        float det = (_A_FOO * _B_BAR) - (_A_BAR * _B_FOO);
        if (det != 0) {
            //intersection points with the edges
            float xIntersectionPoint = ((_B_BAR * _C_FOO) - (_B_FOO * _C_BAR)) / det;
            float yIntersectionPoint = ((_A_FOO * _C_BAR) - (_A_BAR * _C_FOO)) / det;
            interPoint = NSMakePoint(xIntersectionPoint, yIntersectionPoint);
            if (olderX <= points[0].x) {
                //doesn't matter in which direction the ray goes, so I send it right-ward.
                if ((interPoint.x >= olderX && interPoint.x <= points[0].x) && (interPoint.x > point.x)) {  
                    noOfIntersections++;
                }
            } else {
                if ((interPoint.x >= points[0].x && interPoint.x <= olderX) && (interPoint.x > point.x)) {
                     noOfIntersections++;
                } 
            }
        }
        olderX = points[0].x;
        olderY = points[0].y;
    }
    if (noOfIntersections % 2 == 0) {
        result = FALSE;
    } else {
        result = TRUE;
    }
    return result;
}

没有什么比归纳定义问题更美好的了。为了完整起见，你在序言中有一个版本，它可能也澄清了光线投射背后的思想:

基于仿真的简化算法在http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/wrf/Research/Short_Notes/pnpoly.html

一些helper谓词:

exor(A,B):- \+A,B;A,\+B.
in_range(Coordinate,CA,CB) :- exor((CA>Coordinate),(CB>Coordinate)).

inside(false).
inside(_,[_|[]]).
inside(X:Y, [X1:Y1,X2:Y2|R]) :- in_range(Y,Y1,Y2), X > ( ((X2-X1)*(Y-Y1))/(Y2-Y1) +      X1),toggle_ray, inside(X:Y, [X2:Y2|R]); inside(X:Y, [X2:Y2|R]).

get_line(_,_,[]).
get_line([XA:YA,XB:YB],[X1:Y1,X2:Y2|R]):- [XA:YA,XB:YB]=[X1:Y1,X2:Y2]; get_line([XA:YA,XB:YB],[X2:Y2|R]).

给定两点a和B的直线(直线(a,B))方程为:

                    (YB-YA)
           Y - YA = ------- * (X - XA) 
                    (XB-YB) 

It is important that the direction of rotation for the line is setted to clock-wise for boundaries and anti-clock-wise for holes. We are going to check whether the point (X,Y), i.e the tested point is at the left half-plane of our line (it is a matter of taste, it could also be the right side, but also the direction of boundaries lines has to be changed in that case), this is to project the ray from the point to the right (or left) and acknowledge the intersection with the line. We have chosen to project the ray in the horizontal direction (again it is a matter of taste, it could also be done in vertical with similar restrictions), so we have:

               (XB-XA)
           X < ------- * (Y - YA) + XA
               (YB-YA) 

Now we need to know if the point is at the left (or right) side of the line segment only, not the entire plane, so we need to restrict the search only to this segment, but this is easy since to be inside the segment only one point in the line can be higher than Y in the vertical axis. As this is a stronger restriction it needs to be the first to check, so we take first only those lines meeting this requirement and then check its possition. By the Jordan Curve theorem any ray projected to a polygon must intersect at an even number of lines. So we are done, we will throw the ray to the right and then everytime it intersects a line, toggle its state. However in our implementation we are goint to check the lenght of the bag of solutions meeting the given restrictions and decide the innership upon it. for each line in the polygon this have to be done.

is_left_half_plane(_,[],[],_).
is_left_half_plane(X:Y,[XA:YA,XB:YB], [[X1:Y1,X2:Y2]|R], Test) :- [XA:YA, XB:YB] =  [X1:Y1, X2:Y2], call(Test, X , (((XB - XA) * (Y - YA)) / (YB - YA) + XA)); 
                                                        is_left_half_plane(X:Y, [XA:YA, XB:YB], R, Test).

in_y_range_at_poly(Y,[XA:YA,XB:YB],Polygon) :- get_line([XA:YA,XB:YB],Polygon),  in_range(Y,YA,YB).
all_in_range(Coordinate,Polygon,Lines) :- aggregate(bag(Line),    in_y_range_at_poly(Coordinate,Line,Polygon), Lines).

traverses_ray(X:Y, Lines, Count) :- aggregate(bag(Line), is_left_half_plane(X:Y, Line, Lines, <), IntersectingLines), length(IntersectingLines, Count).

% This is the entry point predicate
inside_poly(X:Y,Polygon,Answer) :- all_in_range(Y,Polygon,Lines), traverses_ray(X:Y, Lines, Count), (1 is mod(Count,2)->Answer=inside;Answer=outside).

下面是golang版本的@nirg答案(灵感来自于@@m-katz的c#代码)

func isPointInPolygon(polygon []point, testp point) bool {
    minX := polygon[0].X
    maxX := polygon[0].X
    minY := polygon[0].Y
    maxY := polygon[0].Y

    for _, p := range polygon {
        minX = min(p.X, minX)
        maxX = max(p.X, maxX)
        minY = min(p.Y, minY)
        maxY = max(p.Y, maxY)
    }

    if testp.X < minX || testp.X > maxX || testp.Y < minY || testp.Y > maxY {
        return false
    }

    inside := false
    j := len(polygon) - 1
    for i := 0; i < len(polygon); i++ {
        if (polygon[i].Y > testp.Y) != (polygon[j].Y > testp.Y) && testp.X < (polygon[j].X-polygon[i].X)*(testp.Y-polygon[i].Y)/(polygon[j].Y-polygon[i].Y)+polygon[i].X {
            inside = !inside
        }
        j = i
    }

    return inside
}

当我还是Michael Stonebraker手下的一名研究员时，我做了一些关于这方面的工作——你知道，就是那位提出了Ingres、PostgreSQL等的教授。

我们意识到最快的方法是首先做一个边界框，因为它非常快。如果它在边界框之外，它就在外面。否则，你就得做更辛苦的工作……

如果你想要一个伟大的算法，看看开源项目PostgreSQL的源代码的地理工作…

我想指出的是，我们从来没有深入了解过左撇子和右撇子(也可以表达为“内”和“外”的问题……

更新

BKB's link provided a good number of reasonable algorithms. I was working on Earth Science problems and therefore needed a solution that works in latitude/longitude, and it has the peculiar problem of handedness - is the area inside the smaller area or the bigger area? The answer is that the "direction" of the verticies matters - it's either left-handed or right handed and in this way you can indicate either area as "inside" any given polygon. As such, my work used solution three enumerated on that page.

此外，我的工作使用单独的函数进行“在线”测试。

.．.因为有人问:我们发现当垂直的数量超过某个数字时，边界盒测试是最好的——如果有必要，在做更长的测试之前做一个非常快速的测试……边界框是通过简单地将最大的x，最小的x，最大的y和最小的y放在一起，组成一个框的四个点来创建的……

另一个提示是:我们在网格空间中进行了所有更复杂的“调光”计算，都是在平面上的正点上进行的，然后重新投影到“真实”的经度/纬度上，从而避免了在经度180线交叉时和处理极地时可能出现的环绕错误。工作好了!