Previous power of 2

Question

There is a lot of information on how to find the next power of 2 of a given value (see refs) but I cannot find any to get the previous power of two.

The only way I f

Answer 1

This can be done in one line.

int nextLowerPowerOf2 = i <= 0
                        ? 0
                        : ((i & (~i + 1)) == i)
                            ? i >> 1
                            : (1 << (int)Math.Log(i, 2));

result

i    power_of_2
-2    0
-1    0
0    0
1    0
2    1
3    2
4    2
5    4
6    4
7    4
8    4
9    8

Here's a more readable version in c#, with the <=0 guard clause distributed to the utility methods.

int nextLowerPowerOf2 = IsPowerOfTwo(i) 
    ? i >> 1 // shift it right
    : GetPowerOfTwoLessThanOrEqualTo(i);

public static int GetPowerOfTwoLessThanOrEqualTo(int x)
{
    return (x <= 0 ? 0 : (1 << (int)Math.Log(x, 2)));
}

public static bool IsPowerOfTwo(int x)
{
    return (((x & (~x + 1)) == x) && (x > 0));
}