What does this function do?

Asked 2010-07-16T14:35:44.227

I am reading a program which contains the following function, which is

int f(int n) {
    int c;
    for (c=0;n!=0;++c) 
        n=n&(n-1);
    return c;
}

I don't quite understand what does this function intend to do?

c++ c

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1 Answer

Could it be it tries to return the number of significant bits in n? (Haven't thought through it completely...)

answered 2010-07-16T14:39:52.323