minimum number of steps to reduce number to 1

Question

Given any number n, and three operations on n:

1. add 1
2. subtract 1
3. divide by 2 if the number is even

I want to find the minimum n

Answer 1

To solve the above problem you can either use recursion or loops A recursive answer is already provided so i would try to give a while loop approach.

Logic: We should remember that the number multiple of 2 would always have less set bits than those which are not divisible by 2.

To solve your problem i'm using java code. I have tried it with few numbers and it works fine, if it doesn't add a comment or edit the answer

while(n!=1)
    {
        steps++;
        if(n%2 == 0)
        {
            n=n/2;

        }
        else
        {
            if(Integer.bitCount(n-1) > Integer.bitCount(n+1))
            {
                n += 1;
            }
            else
            {
                n -=1;
            }
        }
    }

    System.out.println(steps);

The code is written in a very simple form so that it could be understood by everyone. Here n is the number entered and steps are the steps required to reach 1