What is precisionStep in very simple terms?

Question

I tried understanding precisionStep at several places but cannot fully understand its concept. So, please explain what it is about, in very simple words.

Answer 1

The precisionStep is a count, after how many bits of the indexed value a new term starts. The original value is always indexed in full precision. Precision step of 4 for a 32 bit value(integer) means terms with these bit counts: All 32, left 28, left 24, left 20, left 16, left 12, left 8, left 4 bits of the value (total 8 terms/value). A precision step of 26 would index 2 terms: all 32 bits and one single term with the remaining 6 bits from the left.