std::bit_width

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Numerics library

Common mathematical functions
Mathematical special functions (C++17)
Mathematical constants (C++20)
Basic linear algebra algorithms (C++26)
Floating-point environment (C++11)
Complex numbers
Numeric array (valarray)
Pseudo-random number generation
Factor operations
gcd (C++17)	lcm (C++17)
Interpolations
midpoint (C++20)	lerp (C++20)
Saturation arithmetic
add_sat (C++26) sub_sat (C++26) saturate_cast (C++26)	mul_sat (C++26) div_sat (C++26)
Generic numeric operations
iota (C++11) ranges::iota (C++23) accumulate inner_product adjacent_difference partial_sum	reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17) inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17) transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
Bit operations
has_single_bit (C++20)     bit_cast (C++20) bit_ceil (C++20) bit_floor (C++20) bit_width (C++20) rotl (C++20) rotr (C++20)	popcount (C++20) countl_zero (C++20) countl_one (C++20) countr_zero (C++20) countr_one (C++20) byteswap (C++23) endian (C++20)

 

Defined in header <bit>
template< class T > constexpr T bit_width( T x ) noexcept;		(since C++20)

If x is not zero, calculates the number of bits needed to store the value x, that is, \(1 + \lfloor \log_2(x) \rfloor\)1 + floor(log2(x)). If x is zero, returns zero.

This overload participates in overload resolution only if T is an unsigned integer type (that is, unsigned char, unsigned short, unsigned int, unsigned long, unsigned long long, or an extended unsigned integer type).

Parameters

x

-

unsigned integer value

Return value

Zero if x is zero; otherwise, one plus the base-2 logarithm of x, with any fractional part discarded.

Notes

This function is equivalent to return std::numeric_limits<T>::digits - std::countl_zero(x);.

Example

Run this code

#include <bit>
#include <bitset>
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    for (unsigned x{0}; x != 8; ++x)
    {
        std::cout
            << "bit_width( "
            << std::bitset<4>{x} << " ) = "
            << std::bit_width(x) << '\n';
    }
}

Output:

bit_width( 0000 ) = 0
bit_width( 0001 ) = 1
bit_width( 0010 ) = 2
bit_width( 0011 ) = 2
bit_width( 0100 ) = 3
bit_width( 0101 ) = 3
bit_width( 0110 ) = 3
bit_width( 0111 ) = 3

See also

countl_zero (C++20)

counts the number of consecutive ​0​ bits, starting from the most significant bit (function template)