C Programming Language :: bits required


	bits required count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b rajm2@gmail.com said: > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b Why? -- Richard Heathfield "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999 http://www.cpax.org.uk email: rjh at the above domain, - www. rajm2@gmail.com wrote: > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b You can repost it all you want, we still won't do your homework for you. Back in the day, when I was a teaching assistant (Physics), I used to tell the students, "It's pointless to cheat on homework. Homework is for you. We only collect and grade it so you'll get feedback on what you're doing wrong and to give you incentive to actually do the work. Exams are where we find out what you really know." Brian In article <1180195883.579214.304@a26g2000pre.googlegroups.com>, <rajm2@gmail.com> wrote: >count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b The answer may be ill-defined. If a temporary value is used, the the number of bits required to be altered to set that temporary to a certain value would depend on what was in the temporary to start with, which is unknown if the temporary is in automatic storage. There is also the question of how to count the alteration of bits. If a particular bit gets altered twice, then is that a count of 2 (two alterations), or a count of 1 (one bit altered) ? Is the requirement to come up with a formula that expresses the number of bits required to be altered to swap two values? Or is the requirement to come up with a program that would count the bits required to be altered to swap two values that are inputs? Or are the two values given ahead of time? What do we know about the types of the two values a and b? Are they integral types? Are they potentially floating point numbers? Are they potentially of mixed type, one integral and one floating point? What are we to do about the problem that "bits" are a matter of representation (which is not completely defined in C), whereas "values" are independant of representation? For example, the answer might be different if the C implementation happens to be using two's complement to represent values when the programmer is expecting one's complement representation instead. -- Programming is what happens while you're busy making other plans. On 26 May 2007 09:11:23 -0700, rajm2@gmail.com wrote: >count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b Posting the same question every hour will not get you more or faster responses. However, it will increase the number of killfiles that contain you name. Posting an obvious homework question while making no attempt to solve it yourself merely hastens the process. Remove del for email Barry Schwarz said: > On 26 May 2007 09:11:23 -0700, rajm2@gmail.com wrote: >>count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b > Posting the same question every hour will not get you more or faster > responses. However, it will increase the number of killfiles that > contain you name. Indeed. In fact, from over here it's already too late. -- Richard Heathfield "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999 http://www.cpax.org.uk email: rjh at the above domain, - www. rajm2@gmail.com wrote: > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b 42.7 -- Flash Gordon rajm2@gmail.com writes: > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b Give us your instructor's e-mail address so we can submit the solution directly. Optionally, you can also give us your name so we can tell your instructor who should get the "credit". Or you might just consider doing your own homework. -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) k@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst> San Diego Supercomputer Center <> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst> "We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this." -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister" rajm2@gmail.com wrote: > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b / BEGIN new.c / #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> unsigned bit_count(unsigned n); int main(void) { unsigned a, b, mask; a = rand(); b = rand(); mask = a ^ b; printf("a is %u\nb is %u.\n", a, b); printf("%u bits would need to be flipped in each object\n" "to swap their values.\n", bit_count(mask)); printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", a, mask, a ^ mask); printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", b, mask, b ^ mask); return 0; } unsigned bit_count(unsigned n) { unsigned count; for (count = 0; n != 0; n &= n - 1) { ++count; } return count; } / END new.c / -- pete On May 27, 3:52 am, pete <pfil@mindspring.com> wrote: - Hide quoted text - > rajm2@gmail.com wrote: > > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b > / BEGIN new.c / > #include <stdio.h> > #include <stdlib.h> > unsigned bit_count(unsigned n); > int main(void) > { > unsigned a, b, mask; > a = rand(); > b = rand(); > mask = a ^ b; > printf("a is %u\nb is %u.\n", a, b); > printf("%u bits would need to be flipped in each object\n" > "to swap their values.\n", bit_count(mask)); > printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", a, mask, a ^ mask); > printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", b, mask, b ^ mask); > return 0; > } > unsigned bit_count(unsigned n) > { > unsigned count; > for (count = 0; n != 0; n &= n - 1) { > ++count; > } > return count; > } > / END new.c / > -- > pete Why you are using unsigned int everywhere?Why count is unsigned?And why you XOR the inputs? - Hide quoted text - Shraddha wrote: > On May 27, 3:52 am, pete <pfil@mindspring.com> wrote: > > rajm2@gmail.com wrote: > > > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b > > / BEGIN new.c / > > #include <stdio.h> > > #include <stdlib.h> > > unsigned bit_count(unsigned n); > > int main(void) > > { > > unsigned a, b, mask; > > a = rand(); > > b = rand(); > > mask = a ^ b; > > printf("a is %u\nb is %u.\n", a, b); > > printf("%u bits would need to be flipped in each object\n" > > "to swap their values.\n", bit_count(mask)); > > printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", a, mask, a ^ mask); > > printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", b, mask, b ^ mask); > > return 0; > > } > > unsigned bit_count(unsigned n) > > { > > unsigned count; > > for (count = 0; n != 0; n &= n - 1) { > > ++count; > > } > > return count; > > } > > / END new.c / > Why you are using unsigned int everywhere? > Why count is unsigned? Bitwise operations are better suited to unsigned types. > And why you XOR the inputs? The result of a ^ b, is a mask which has the bits set, where a and b differ. -- pete "Shraddha" <shraddhajosh@gmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:1180240585.955955.40150@j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com... - Hide quoted text - > On May 27, 3:52 am, pete <pfil@mindspring.com> wrote: >> rajm2@gmail.com wrote: >> > count the bits required to be altered while swaping values a and b >> / BEGIN new.c / >> #include <stdio.h> >> #include <stdlib.h> >> unsigned bit_count(unsigned n); >> int main(void) >> { >> unsigned a, b, mask; >> a = rand(); >> b = rand(); >> mask = a ^ b; >> printf("a is %u\nb is %u.\n", a, b); >> printf("%u bits would need to be flipped in each object\n" >> "to swap their values.\n", bit_count(mask)); >> printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", a, mask, a ^ mask); >> printf("%u ^ %u is %u\n", b, mask, b ^ mask); >> return 0; >> } >> unsigned bit_count(unsigned n) >> { >> unsigned count; >> for (count = 0; n != 0; n &= n - 1) { >> ++count; >> } >> return count; >> } >> / END new.c */ >> -- >> pete > Why you are using unsigned int everywhere? To avoid a leading bit to be interpreted as a negative value > Why count is unsigned? Why not? After all there would never be a negative number of bits counted. unsigned char would have been sufficient here, don't think there are many machine out there with more than 256 bits in an int... > And why you XOR the inputs? To find the bits that are set differently in the 2 operands Bye, Jojo