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

Efficient can mean throughput or latency.

For throughout, see the answer by Anders Cedronius, it’s a good one.

For lower latency, I would recommend this code:

uint32_t reverseBits( uint32_t x )
{
#if defined(__arm__) || defined(__aarch64__)
    __asm__( "rbit %0, %1" : "=r" ( x ) : "r" ( x ) );
    return x;
#endif
    // Flip pairwise
    x = ( ( x & 0x55555555 ) << 1 ) | ( ( x & 0xAAAAAAAA ) >> 1 );
    // Flip pairs
    x = ( ( x & 0x33333333 ) << 2 ) | ( ( x & 0xCCCCCCCC ) >> 2 );
    // Flip nibbles
    x = ( ( x & 0x0F0F0F0F ) << 4 ) | ( ( x & 0xF0F0F0F0 ) >> 4 );

    // Flip bytes. CPUs have an instruction for that, pretty fast one.
#ifdef _MSC_VER
    return _byteswap_ulong( x );
#elif defined(__INTEL_COMPILER)
    return (uint32_t)_bswap( (int)x );
#else
    // Assuming gcc or clang
    return __builtin_bswap32( x );
#endif
}

Compilers output: https://godbolt.org/z/5ehd89