CTCI: Ch. 5-1

You are given two 32-bit numbers, N and M, and two bit positions, i and j. Write a method to insert M into N such that M starts at bit j and ends at bit i.
You can assume that the bits j through I have enough space to fit all of M. That is, if M = 10011, you can assume that there are at least 5 bits between j and i.
You would not, for example, have j = 3 and i = 2, because M could not fully fit between bit 3 and bit 2.

 

EXAMPLE
Input: N = 10000000000, M = 10011, i = 2, j = 6
Output: N = 10001001100

unsigned int mergeTwoInt(unsigned int n, unsigned int m, unsigned int i, unsigned int j)
{
    //Step 1. Clear the bits j through i in n
    unsigned int ones = ~0;
    unsigned int left = ones << (j+1);
    unsigned int right = (1<<i)-1;
    unsigned int mask = left | right;
    
    //Step 2. Shift m, and then merge m and n
    return (n & mask) | (m << i);
}

 

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