find the index of the highest bit set of a 32-bit number without loops obviously

Question

Here\'s a tough one(atleast i had a hard time :P):

find the index of the highest bit set of a 32-bit number without using any loops.

Answer 1

well from what I know the function Log is Implemented very efficiently in most programming languages, and even if it does contain loops , it is probably very few of them , internally So I would say that in most cases using the log would be faster , and more direct. you do have to check for 0 though and avoid taking the log of 0, as that would cause the program to crash.