Efficient Algorithm for Bit Reversal (from MSB->LSB to LSB->MSB) in C

Question

What is the most efficient algorithm to achieve the following:

0010 0000 => 0000 0100

The conversion is from MSB->LSB to LSB->MSB. All bits

Answer 1

Well this certainly won't be an answer like Matt J's but hopefully it will still be useful.

size_t reverse(size_t n, unsigned int bytes)
{
    __asm__("BSWAP %0" : "=r"(n) : "0"(n));
    n >>= ((sizeof(size_t) - bytes) * 8);
    n = ((n & 0xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) >> 1) | ((n & 0x5555555555555555) << 1);
    n = ((n & 0xcccccccccccccccc) >> 2) | ((n & 0x3333333333333333) << 2);
    n = ((n & 0xf0f0f0f0f0f0f0f0) >> 4) | ((n & 0x0f0f0f0f0f0f0f0f) << 4);
    return n;
}

This is exactly the same idea as Matt's best algorithm except that there's this little instruction called BSWAP which swaps the bytes (not the bits) of a 64-bit number. So b7,b6,b5,b4,b3,b2,b1,b0 becomes b0,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7. Since we are working with a 32-bit number we need to shift our byte-swapped number down 32 bits. This just leaves us with the task of swapping the 8 bits of each byte which is done and voila! we're done.

Timing: on my machine, Matt's algorithm ran in ~0.52 seconds per trial. Mine ran in about 0.42 seconds per trial. 20% faster is not bad I think.

If you're worried about the availability of the instruction BSWAP Wikipedia lists the instruction BSWAP as being added with 80846 which came out in 1989. It should be noted that Wikipedia also states that this instruction only works on 32 bit registers which is clearly not the case on my machine, it very much works only on 64-bit registers.

This method will work equally well for any integral datatype so the method can be generalized trivially by passing the number of bytes desired:

    size_t reverse(size_t n, unsigned int bytes)
    {
        __asm__("BSWAP %0" : "=r"(n) : "0"(n));
        n >>= ((sizeof(size_t) - bytes) * 8);
        n = ((n & 0xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) >> 1) | ((n & 0x5555555555555555) << 1);
        n = ((n & 0xcccccccccccccccc) >> 2) | ((n & 0x3333333333333333) << 2);
        n = ((n & 0xf0f0f0f0f0f0f0f0) >> 4) | ((n & 0x0f0f0f0f0f0f0f0f) << 4);
        return n;
    }

which can then be called like:

    n = reverse(n, sizeof(char));//only reverse 8 bits
    n = reverse(n, sizeof(short));//reverse 16 bits
    n = reverse(n, sizeof(int));//reverse 32 bits
    n = reverse(n, sizeof(size_t));//reverse 64 bits

The compiler should be able to optimize the extra parameter away (assuming the compiler inlines the function) and for the sizeof(size_t) case the right-shift would be removed completely. Note that GCC at least is not able to remove the BSWAP and right-shift if passed sizeof(char).