Popcount算法实现

引言

在无聊刷题时无意间碰到一个population count的题目，要求找出输入的矢量中有多少个1（二进制）。题目如下：

A “population count” circuit counts the number of '1’s in an input vector. Build a population count circuit for a 255-bit input vector.

Popcount算法

经过搜索，找到一种比较好的算法，采用的分治的思想，时间复杂度较低，为log（N）。

这种算法叫 shift and add，从名字可以直观的想到，该算法主要用到的shift，and，add操作。

算法解析

该算法主要利用两点：
一 根据最直观的做法，把每一位相加后就可以得到结果，这个过程我们可以利用分治+并行加法来优化；

二 对于n位整数，最多有n个1，而n必定能由n位二进制数来表示，因此我们在求出某k位中1的个数后，可以将结果直接存储在这k位中，不需要额外的空间。

以4位二进制数abcd为例，最终结果是a+b+c+d，循环的话需要4步加法

那么我们让abcd相邻的两个数相加，也就是 a+b+c+d=[a+b]+[c+d]

0 b 0 d

0 a 0 c

e f g h

ef=a+b gh=c+d 而 0b0d=(abcd)&0101,0a0c=(abcd)>>1 &0101

ef gh再相邻的两组相加

00 ef
gh
i j k l
ijkl=ef+gh gh=(efgh)&& 0011 ,ef=(efgh)>>2 & 0011
依次递推，需要log(N)次。

算法实现

/* ===========================================================================
* Problem: 
*   The fastest way to count how many 1s in a 32-bits integer.
*
* Algorithm:
*   The problem equals to calculate the Hamming weight of a 32-bits integer,
*   or the Hamming distance between a 32-bits integer and 0. In binary cases,
*   it is also called the population count, or popcount.[1]
*
*   The best solution known are based on adding counts in a tree pattern
*   (divide and conquer). Due to space limit, here is an example for a
*   8-bits binary number A=01101100:[1]
* | Expression            | Binary   | Decimal | Comment                    |
* | A                     | 01101100 |         | the original number        |
* | B = A & 01010101      | 01000100 | 1,0,1,0 | every other bit from A     |
* | C = (A>>1) & 01010101 | 00010100 | 0,1,1,0 | remaining bits from A      |
* | D = B + C             | 01011000 | 1,1,2,0 | # of 1s in each 2-bit of A | 
* | E = D & 00110011      | 00010000 | 1,0     | every other count from D   |
* | F = (D>>2) & 00110011 | 00010010 | 1,2     | remaining counts from D    |
* | G = E + F             | 00100010 | 2,2     | # of 1s in each 4-bit of A |
* | H = G & 00001111      | 00000010 | 2       | every other count from G   |
* | I = (G>>4) & 00001111 | 00000010 | 2       | remaining counts from G    |
* | J = H + I             | 00000100 | 4       | No. of 1s in A             |
* Hence A have 4 1s.
*
* [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamming_weight
*
* ===========================================================================
*/