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# Posts published in “Bit”

You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums. In one operation, select any non-negative integer x and an index i, then update nums[i] to be equal to nums[i] AND (nums[i] XOR x).

Note that AND is the bitwise AND operation and XOR is the bitwise XOR operation.

Return the maximum possible bitwise XOR of all elements of nums after applying the operation any number of times.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,2,4,6]
Output: 7
Explanation: Apply the operation with x = 4 and i = 3, num[3] = 6 AND (6 XOR 4) = 6 AND 2 = 2.
Now, nums = [3, 2, 4, 2] and the bitwise XOR of all the elements = 3 XOR 2 XOR 4 XOR 2 = 7.
It can be shown that 7 is the maximum possible bitwise XOR.
Note that other operations may be used to achieve a bitwise XOR of 7.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,2,3,9,2]
Output: 11
Explanation: Apply the operation zero times.
The bitwise XOR of all the elements = 1 XOR 2 XOR 3 XOR 9 XOR 2 = 11.
It can be shown that 11 is the maximum possible bitwise XOR.

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 105
• 0 <= nums[i] <= 108

## Solution: Bitwise OR

The maximum possible number MAX = nums[0] | nums[1] | … | nums[n – 1].

We need to prove:
1) MAX is achievable.
2) MAX is the largest number we can get.

nums[i] AND (nums[i] XOR x) means that we can turn any 1 bits to 0 for nums[i].

1) If the i-th bit of MAX is 1, which means there are at least one number with i-th bit equals to 1, however, for XOR, if there are even numbers with i-th bit equal to one, the final results will be 0 for i-th bit, we get a smaller number. By using the operation, we can choose one of them and flip the bit.

**1** XOR **1** XOR **1** XOR **1** = **0** =>
**0** XOR **1** XOR **1** XOR **1** = **1**

2) If the i-th bit of MAX is 0, which means the i-th bit of all the numbers is 0, there is nothing we can do with the operation, and the XOR will be 0 as well.
e.g. **0** XOR **0** XOR **0** XOR **0** = **0**

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

bit flip of a number x is choosing a bit in the binary representation of x and flipping it from either 0 to 1 or 1 to 0.

• For example, for x = 7, the binary representation is 111 and we may choose any bit (including any leading zeros not shown) and flip it. We can flip the first bit from the right to get 110, flip the second bit from the right to get 101, flip the fifth bit from the right (a leading zero) to get 10111, etc.

Given two integers start and goal, return the minimum number of bit flips to convert start to goal.

Example 1:

Input: start = 10, goal = 7
Output: 3
Explanation: The binary representation of 10 and 7 are 1010 and 0111 respectively. We can convert 10 to 7 in 3 steps:
- Flip the first bit from the right: 1010 -> 1011.
- Flip the third bit from the right: 1011 -> 1111.
- Flip the fourth bit from the right: 1111 -> 0111.
It can be shown we cannot convert 10 to 7 in less than 3 steps. Hence, we return 3.

Example 2:

Input: start = 3, goal = 4
Output: 3
Explanation: The binary representation of 3 and 4 are 011 and 100 respectively. We can convert 3 to 4 in 3 steps:
- Flip the first bit from the right: 011 -> 010.
- Flip the second bit from the right: 010 -> 000.
- Flip the third bit from the right: 000 -> 100.
It can be shown we cannot convert 3 to 4 in less than 3 steps. Hence, we return 3.


Constraints:

• 0 <= start, goal <= 109

Solution: XOR

start ^ goal will give us the bitwise difference of start and goal in binary format.
ans = # of 1 ones in the xor-ed results.
For C++, we can use __builtin_popcount or bitset<32>::count() to get the number of bits set for a given integer.

Time complexity: O(1)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

Given an array of strings nums containing n unique binary strings each of length n, return a binary string of length n that does not appear in nums. If there are multiple answers, you may return any of them.

Example 1:

Input: nums = ["01","10"]
Output: "11"
Explanation: "11" does not appear in nums. "00" would also be correct.


Example 2:

Input: nums = ["00","01"]
Output: "11"
Explanation: "11" does not appear in nums. "10" would also be correct.


Example 3:

Input: nums = ["111","011","001"]
Output: "101"
Explanation: "101" does not appear in nums. "000", "010", "100", and "110" would also be correct.


Constraints:

• n == nums.length
• 1 <= n <= 16
• nums[i].length == n
• nums[i] is either '0' or '1'.
• All the strings of nums are unique.

## Solution 1: Hashtable

We can use bitset to convert between integer and binary string.

Time complexity: O(n2)
Space complexity: O(n2)

## Solution 2: One bit a time

Let ans[i] = ‘1’ – nums[i][i], s.t. ans is at least one bit different from any strings.

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

Given an integer n, return true if it is a power of two. Otherwise, return false.

An integer n is a power of two, if there exists an integer x such that n == 2x.

Example 1:

Input: n = 1
Output: true
Explanation: 20 = 1


Example 2:

Input: n = 16
Output: true
Explanation: 24 = 16


Example 3:

Input: n = 3
Output: false


Example 4:

Input: n = 4
Output: true


Example 5:

Input: n = 5
Output: false


Constraints:

• -231 <= n <= 231 - 1

## Solution: 1 bit set

Any power of two has only 1 bit set in the binary format. e.g. 1=0b01, 2=0b10, 4=0b100, 8=0b1000

1. use popcount.

## C++

2. Use (n) & (n – 1) to remove the last set bit, so it should be zero.

## C++

Given two integers left and right that represent the range [left, right], return the bitwise AND of all numbers in this range, inclusive.

Example 1:

Input: left = 5, right = 7
Output: 4


Example 2:

Input: left = 0, right = 0
Output: 0


Example 3:

Input: left = 1, right = 2147483647
Output: 0


Constraints:

• 0 <= left <= right <= 231 - 1

## Solution: Bit operation

Bitwise AND all the numbers between left and right will clear out all the low bits. Basically this question is asking to find the common prefix of left and right in the binary format.

5 = 0b0101
7 = 0b0111
the common prefix is 0b0100 which is 4.

Time complexity: O(logn)
Space complexity: O(1)