How can I perform multiplication without the '*' operator?

Question

I was just going through some basic stuff as I am learning C. I came upon a question to multiply a number by 7 without using the * operator. Basically it\'s like this

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Answer 1

Any number, odd or even, can be expressed as a sum of powers of two. For example,

     1   2   4   8
------------------
 1 = 1
 2 = 0 + 2
 3 = 1 + 2
 4 = 0 + 0 + 4
 5 = 1 + 0 + 4
 6 = 0 + 2 + 4
 7 = 1 + 2 + 4
 8 = 0 + 0 + 0 + 8
11 = 1 + 2 + 0 + 8

So, you can multiply x by any number by performing the right set of shifts and adds.

 1x = x
 2x = 0 + x<<1
 3x = x + x<<1
 4x = 0 +  0   + x<<2
 5x = x +  0   + x<<2
11x = x + x<<1 +   0  + x<<3