Find the lowest set bit

Question

I have 5 bit numbers like

10000
01000
00100

If only one bit is on in my calculation i have no problem.

but if 2 bits are on then I

Answer 1

Binary operators usually affect all bits of a number. So, there is no special function to get only the first "1" in number. But you can try such a function:

function filterFirstFoundBit(number)
{
    for (var i = 0; i < 32; i++) {
        if ((1 << i) & number)
        {
            return 1 << i;
        }
    }
    return number;
}
document.write(filterFirstFoundBit(9)); //10010​​​​​​​​

Try it here