What are some interesting bitwise challenges in Python?

What are some interesting bitwise challenges in Python?

Here are a few interesting bitwise challenges you can try:

1. Count the number of 1s in a binary representation of a number.
2. Swap two numbers without using a temporary variable.
3. Check if a number is a power of two using bitwise operations.

Can you explain how to count the number of 1s in a binary representation?

Sure! You can use the bitwise AND operation in a loop. Here's a simple function:

def count_ones(n):
    count = 0
    while n:
        count += n & 1  # Increment count if the last bit is 1
        n >>= 1  # Right shift n by 1
    return count

This function will return the number of 1s in the binary representation of n.

What about swapping two numbers without a temporary variable?

You can use XOR to swap two numbers without a temporary variable. Here's how it works:

def swap(a, b):
    a = a ^ b
    b = a ^ b
    a = a ^ b
    return a, b

This will swap the values of a and b.