Efficient way of iterating over true bits in std::bitset?

Question

Is there a way of iterating over a (possibly huge) std::bitset that is linear in the number of bits that are set to true? I want to prevent having to check every single position in the bitset. The iteration should successively return the indices of each bit that is set to true.

Answer 1

A standard bitvector does not support efficient iteration over true bits - the runtime is always O(n), where n is the number of total bits, which has no dependence on k. However, there are specialized data structures like van Emde Boas trees and y-fast tries, that support iteration over the bits in time O(k lg lg n), where n is the number of bits and k is the number of true bits.