Emulating variable bit-shift using only constant shifts?

Question

I\'m trying to find a way to perform an indirect shift-left/right operation without actually using the variable shift op or any branches.

The particular PowerPC pro

Answer 1

How about this:

if (y & 16) x <<= 16;
if (y & 8) x <<= 8;
if (y & 4) x <<= 4;
if (y & 2) x <<= 2;
if (y & 1) x <<= 1;

will probably take longer yet to execute but easier to interleave if you have other code to go between.