Cheap way of calculating cubic bezier length

Question

An analytical solution for cubic bezier length seems not to exist, but it does not mean that coding a cheap solution does not exist. By cheap I mean something like in the rang

Answer 1

I worked out the closed form expression of length for a 3 point Bezier (below). I've not attempted to work out a closed form for 4+ points. This would most likely be difficult or complicated to represent and handle. However, a numerical approximation technique such as a Runge-Kutta integration algorithm (see my Q&A here for details) would work quite well by integrating using the arc length formula.

Here is some Java code for the arc length of a 3 point Bezier, with points a,b, and c.

    v.x = 2*(b.x - a.x);
    v.y = 2*(b.y - a.y);
    w.x = c.x - 2*b.x + a.x;
    w.y = c.y - 2*b.y + a.y;

    uu = 4*(w.x*w.x + w.y*w.y);

    if(uu < 0.00001)
    {
        return (float) Math.sqrt((c.x - a.x)*(c.x - a.x) + (c.y - a.y)*(c.y - a.y));
    }

    vv = 4*(v.x*w.x + v.y*w.y);
    ww = v.x*v.x + v.y*v.y;

    t1 = (float) (2*Math.sqrt(uu*(uu + vv + ww)));
    t2 = 2*uu+vv;
    t3 = vv*vv - 4*uu*ww;
    t4 = (float) (2*Math.sqrt(uu*ww));

    return (float) ((t1*t2 - t3*Math.log(t2+t1) -(vv*t4 - t3*Math.log(vv+t4))) / (8*Math.pow(uu, 1.5)));