x &= (x-1)

最近在《the c programing language》看到这一个算法，一开始不太明白，仔细的分析了一下还是蛮高明的，上网搜索了一下，好些网友对此不是很了解，写在这里大家一起分享一下：

If x is odd, then (x-1) has the same bit representation as x except that the rightmost 1-bit is now a 0. In this case, (x & (x-1)) == (x-1). If x is even, then the representation of (x-1) has the rightmost zeros of x becoming ones and the rightmost one becoming a zero. Anding the two clears the rightmost 1-bit in x and all the rightmost 1-bits from (x-1). Here's the new version of bitcount

如果x是奇数，那么x的最低位必定为1，执行（x-1)后，除最低位变为零之外其它位均不变，然后与x相与，结果与(x-1)一样，既 (x & (x-1)) == (x-1). 如果x是个偶数，执行 (x-1)后，x最右边的非零位上的1变为0，其右边的零位全变为1，这样再与x相与后，x最右边的非零位上的1和（x-1)右边的那些1位都变为零。

算法的功能就是将x的最右边的1变为零。