How can I perform multiplication without the '*' operator?

Question

I was just going through some basic stuff as I am learning C. I came upon a question to multiply a number by 7 without using the * operator. Basically it\'s like this

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Answer 1

It's easy to avoid the '*' operator:

mov eax, 1234h
mov edx, 5678h
imul edx

No '*' in sight. Of course, if you wanted to get into the spirit of it, you could also use the trusty old shift and add algorithm:

mult proc
; Multiplies eax by ebx and places result in edx:ecx
    xor ecx, ecx
    xor edx, edx
mul1:
    test ebx, 1
    jz  mul2
    add ecx, eax
    adc edx, 0
mul2:
    shr ebx, 1
    shl eax, 1
    test ebx, ebx
    jnz  mul1
done:
    ret
mult endp

Of course, with modern processors, all (?) have multiplication instructions, but back when the PDP-11 was shiny and new, code like this saw real use.

Answer 2

int multiply(int multiplicand, int factor)
{
    if (factor == 0) return 0;

    int product = multiplicand;
    for (int ii = 1; ii < abs(factor); ++ii) {
        product += multiplicand;
    }

    return factor >= 0 ? product : -product;
}

You wanted multiplication without *, you got it, pal!

Answer 3

This is the simplest C99/C11 solution for positive numbers:

unsigned multiply(unsigned x, unsigned y) { return sizeof(char[x][y]); }

Answer 4

Shift and add doesn't work (even with sign extension) when the multiplicand is negative. Signed multiplication has to be done using Booth encoding:

Starting from the LSB, a change from 0 to 1 is -1; a change from 1 to 0 is 1, otherwise 0. There is also an implicit extra bit 0 below the LSB.

For example, the number 5 (0101) will be encoded as: (1)(-1)(1)(-1). You can verify this is correct:

5 = 2^3 - 2^2 + 2 -1

This algorithm also works with negative numbers in 2's complement form:

-1 in 4-bit 2's complement is 1111. Using the Booth algorithm: (1)(0)(0)(0)(-1), where there is no space for the leftmost bit 1 so we get: (0)(0)(0)(-1) which is -1.

/* Multiply two signed integers using the Booth algorithm */
int booth(int x, int y)
{
    int prev_bit = 0;
    int result = 0;

    while (x != 0) {
        int current_bit = x & 0x1;
        if (prev_bit & ~current_bit) {
            result += y;
        } else if (~prev_bit & current_bit) {
            result -= y;
        }

        prev_bit = current_bit;

        x = static_cast<unsigned>(x) >> 1;
        y <<= 1;
    }

    if (prev_bit)
        result += y;

    return result;
}

The above code does not check for overflow. Below is a slightly modified version that multiplies two 16 bit numbers and returns a 32 bit number so it never overflows:

/* Multiply two 16-bit signed integers using the Booth algorithm */
/* Returns a 32-bit signed integer */
int32_t booth(int16_t x, int16_t y)
{
    int16_t prev_bit = 0;
    int16_t sign_bit = (x >> 16) & 0x1;
    int32_t result = 0;
    int32_t y1 = static_cast<int32_t>(y);

    while (x != 0) {
        int16_t current_bit = x & 0x1;
        if (prev_bit & ~current_bit) {
            result += y1;
        } else if (~prev_bit & current_bit) {
            result -= y1;
        }

        prev_bit = current_bit;

        x = static_cast<uint16_t>(x) >> 1;
        y1 <<= 1;
    }

    if (prev_bit & ~sign_bit)
        result += y1;

    return result;
}

Answer 5

An integer left shift is multiplying by 2, provided it doesn't overflow. Just add or subtract as appropriate once you get close.

Answer 6

unsigned int Multiply(unsigned int m1, unsigned int m2)
{
    unsigned int numBits = sizeof(unsigned int) * 8; // Not part of the core algorithm
    unsigned int product = 0;
    unsigned int mask = 1;
    for(int i =0; i < numBits; ++i, mask = mask << 1)
    {
        if(m1 & mask)
        {
            product += (m2 << i);
        }
    }
    return product;
}