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:

int[] multiplicands = { 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ... etc ...};

int ShiftByVar( int x, int y )
{
    //return x << y;
    return x * multiplicands[y];
}