Longest Consecutive 1s in Binary Representation

Given a number n, find length of the longest consecutive 1s in its binary representation.

Examples :

Input : n = 14
Output : 3
The binary representation of 14 is 1110.

Input : n = 222
Output : 4
The binary representation of 222 is 11011110.

Solution:

Using Bit Magic: The idea is based on the concept that if we AND a bit sequence with a shifted version of itself, we’re effectively removing the trailing 1 from every sequence of consecutive 1s.

  11101111 (x)
& 11011110 (x << 1)
----------
  11001110 (x & (x << 1))
  ^ ^
  | |
  trailing 1 removed

So the operation x = (x & (x << 1)) reduces length of every sequence of 1s by one in binary representation of x. If we keep doing this operation in a loop, we end up with x = 0. The number of iterations required to reach 0 is actually length of the longest consecutive sequence of 1s.

Time Complexity:

$log(n)$

---

C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int maxConsecutivesOne(int n) {
    int count = 0;
    while (n) {
        n &= (n >> 1);
        count++;
    }
    return count;
}

int main() {
    cout << maxConsecutivesOne(221);
    return 0;
}

Python

def maxConsecutiveOnes(n):
    count = 0
    while n > 0:            # 1101110
        n &= n << 1         # &11011100
        count += 1          # -> 10010100 repeat
    return count

print(maxConsecutiveOnes(221))

Output:

3