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

Generic

C code. Using 1 byte input data num as example.

    unsigned char num = 0xaa;   // 1010 1010 (aa) -> 0101 0101 (55)
    int s = sizeof(num) * 8;    // get number of bits
    int i, x, y, p;
    int var = 0;                // make var data type to be equal or larger than num

    for (i = 0; i < (s / 2); i++) {
        // extract bit on the left, from MSB
        p = s - i - 1;
        x = num & (1 << p);
        x = x >> p;
        printf("x: %d\n", x);

        // extract bit on the right, from LSB
        y = num & (1 << i);
        y = y >> i;
        printf("y: %d\n", y);

        var = var | (x << i);       // apply x
        var = var | (y << p);       // apply y
    }

    printf("new: 0x%x\n", new);