What's the most efficient way to test two integer ranges for overlap?

What does it mean for the ranges to overlap? It means there exists some number C which is in both ranges, i.e.

x1 <= C <= x2

and

y1 <= C <= y2

Now, if we are allowed to assume that the ranges are well-formed (so that x1 <= x2 and y1 <= y2) then it is sufficient to test

x1 <= y2 && y1 <= x2

Given two ranges [x1,x2], [y1,y2]

def is_overlapping(x1,x2,y1,y2):
    return max(x1,y1) <= min(x2,y2)

This can easily warp a normal human brain, so I've found a visual approach to be easier to understand:

le Explanation

If two ranges are "too fat" to fit in a slot that is exactly the sum of the width of both, then they overlap.

For ranges [a1, a2] and [b1, b2] this would be:

/**
 * we are testing for:
 *     max point - min point < w1 + w2    
 **/
if max(a2, b2) - min(a1, b1) < (a2 - a1) + (b2 - b1) {
  // too fat -- they overlap!
}