method

bit_length

Importance_2
v2_5_5 - Show latest stable - 0 notes - Class: Integer
bit_length() public

Returns the number of bits of the value of int.

“Number of bits” means the bit position of the highest bit which is different from the sign bit (where the least significant bit has bit position 1). If there is no such bit (zero or minus one), zero is returned.

I.e. this method returns ceil(log2(int < 0 ? -int : int+1)).

(-2**1000-1).bit_length   #=> 1001
(-2**1000).bit_length     #=> 1000
(-2**1000+1).bit_length   #=> 1000
(-2**12-1).bit_length     #=> 13
(-2**12).bit_length       #=> 12
(-2**12+1).bit_length     #=> 12
-0x101.bit_length         #=> 9
-0x100.bit_length         #=> 8
-0xff.bit_length          #=> 8
-2.bit_length             #=> 1
-1.bit_length             #=> 0
0.bit_length              #=> 0
1.bit_length              #=> 1
0xff.bit_length           #=> 8
0x100.bit_length          #=> 9
(2**12-1).bit_length      #=> 12
(2**12).bit_length        #=> 13
(2**12+1).bit_length      #=> 13
(2**1000-1).bit_length    #=> 1000
(2**1000).bit_length      #=> 1001
(2**1000+1).bit_length    #=> 1001

This method can be used to detect overflow in Array#pack as follows:

if n.bit_length < 32
  [n].pack("l") # no overflow
else
  raise "overflow"
end
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