Define the minimal bounding rectangle as the smallest rectangle containing a given lattice polygon. If the perimeter of the lattice polygon is equal to that of its minimal bounding rectangle, it is said to be convex. (Note that a "convex" lattice polygon is not necessarily convex in the usual sense of the word.) A staircase polygon is then defined as a convex polygon which contains two opposite corners of its bounding rectangle (Bousquet-Mélou et al. 1999).
The area generating function that counts polygons of width for staircase polygons of width 4 is given by
(1)
|
which satisfies
(2)
|
(Bousquet-Mélou 1992, Bousquet-Mélou et al. 1999). The anisotropic area and perimeter generating function and partial generating functions , connected by
(3)
|
satisfy the self-reciprocity and inversion relations
(4)
|
for and
(5)
|
(Bousquet-Mélou et al. 1999).
The anisotropic area and perimeter generating function of staircase polygon with a staircase hole satisfies an inversion relation of the form
(6)
|
(Bousquet-Mélou et al. 1999).
Knuth (2022) considered the packing of all staircase polygons with a given semiperimeter into a square.