How to determine how many bytes an integer needs?

Question

I\'m looking for the most efficient way to calculate the minimum number of bytes needed to store an integer without losing precision.

e.g.

int: 10 = 1 byte
         


        

Answer 1

You need just two simple ifs if you are interested on the common sizes only. Consider this (assuming that you actually have unsigned values):

if (val < 0x10000) {
    if (val < 0x100) // 8 bit
    else // 16 bit
} else {
    if (val < 0x100000000L) // 32 bit
    else // 64 bit
}

Should you need to test for other sizes, choosing a middle point and then doing nested tests will keep the number of tests very low in any case. However, in that case making the testing a recursive function might be a better option, to keep the code simple. A decent compiler will optimize away the recursive calls so that the resulting code is still just as fast.