Get an array of the bit positions within a 64-bit integer

Question

OK, it may sound a bit complicated, but this is what I'm trying to do :

• Take e.g. 10101010101
• And return { 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 } - an array with all of the positions of bits which are set

This is my code :

UINT DQBitboard::firstBit(U64 bitboard)
{
    static const int index64[64] = {
    63,  0, 58,  1, 59, 47, 53,  2,
    60, 39, 48, 27, 54, 33, 42,  3,
    61, 51, 37, 40, 49, 18, 28, 20,
    55, 30, 34, 11, 43, 14, 22,  4,
    62, 57, 46, 52, 38, 26, 32, 41,
    50, 36, 17, 19, 29, 10, 13, 21,
    56, 45, 25, 31, 35, 16,  9, 12,
    44, 24, 15,  8, 23,  7,  6,  5  };

    static const U64 debruijn64 = 0x07EDD5E59A4E28C2ULL;

    #pragma warning (disable: 4146)
    return index64[((bitboard & -bitboard) * debruijn64) >> 58];  
}

vector<UINT> DQBitboard::bits(U64 bitboard)
{
    vector<UINT> res;

    while (bitboard)
    {
        UINT first = DQBitboard::firstBit(bitboard);
        res.push_back(first);

        bitboard &= ~(1ULL<<first);
    }

    return res;
}

And the code surely does work.

My point is :

• Is there any faster implementation you have in mind?
• Do you notice anything that could be optimized? If so, what?

---

Hints :

• UINT is a typedef of unsigned int
• U64 is a typedef of unsigned long long
• Both methods are static inline.

Answer 1

Here is another suggestion that can be profiled (can be combined with other suggestions for further optimization). Note, the loop here is O(number of set bits).

vector<UINT> bits_set (UINT64 data) 
{
    UINT n;
    vector<UINT> res;
    res.reserve(64);
    for (n = 0; data != 0; n++, data &= (data - 1))
    {
        res.push_back(log2(data & ~(data-1)));
    }
    return res;
}