如果你提醒自己标准的学校除法方法，用二进制来做，你会发现在3的情况下，你只是在有限的一组值中除法和减法(在这种情况下，从0到5)。这些可以用switch语句处理，以摆脱算术运算符。

static unsigned lamediv3(unsigned n)
{
  unsigned result = 0, remainder = 0, mask = 0x80000000;

  // Go through all bits of n from MSB to LSB.
  for (int i = 0; i < 32; i++, mask >>= 1)
  {
    result <<= 1;
    // Shift in the next bit of n into remainder.
    remainder = remainder << 1 | !!(n & mask);

    // Divide remainder by 3, update result and remainer.
    // If remainder is less than 3, it remains intact.
    switch (remainder)
    {
    case 3:
      result |= 1;
      remainder = 0;
      break;

    case 4:
      result |= 1;
      remainder = 1;
      break;

    case 5:
      result |= 1;
      remainder = 2;
      break;
    }
  }

  return result;
}

#include <cstdio>

int main()
{
  // Verify for all possible values of a 32-bit unsigned integer.
  unsigned i = 0;

  do
  {
    unsigned d = lamediv3(i);

    if (i / 3 != d)
    {
      printf("failed for %u: %u != %u\n", i, d, i / 3);
      return 1;
    }
  }
  while (++i != 0);
}

这是Python中的，基本上，字符串比较和一个状态机。

def divide_by_3(input):
  to_do = {}
  enque_index = 0
  zero_to_9 = (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
  leave_over = 0
  for left_over in (0, 1, 2):
    for digit in zero_to_9:
      # left_over, digit => enque, leave_over
      to_do[(left_over, digit)] = (zero_to_9[enque_index], leave_over)
      if leave_over == 0:
        leave_over = 1
      elif leave_over == 1:
        leave_over = 2
      elif leave_over == 2 and enque_index != 9:
        leave_over = 0
        enque_index = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)[enque_index]
  answer_q = []
  left_over = 0
  digits = list(str(input))
  if digits[0] == "-":
    answer_q.append("-")
  digits = digits[1:]
  for digit in digits:
    enque, left_over = to_do[(left_over, int(digit))]
    if enque or len(answer_q):
      answer_q.append(enque)
  answer = 0
  if len(answer_q):
    answer = int("".join([str(a) for a in answer_q]))
  return answer

int div3(int x)
{
  int reminder = abs(x);
  int result = 0;
  while(reminder >= 3)
  {
     result++;

     reminder--;
     reminder--;
     reminder--;
  }
  return result;
}

似乎没有人提到用二进制表示的3的除法准则——偶数的和应该等于奇数的和(类似于十进制中11的准则)。在“检查一个数是否能被3整除”一栏中有使用这个技巧的解决方案。

我想这就是迈克尔·伯尔的编辑提到的可能的复制品。

3以2为底等于11。

所以只要做长除法(就像中学那样)，以2 × 11为底。以2为底比以10为底更简单。

对于从最有效位开始的每个位位:

判断prefix是否小于11。

如果它是输出0。

如果不是输出1，则替换前缀位进行适当的更改。只有三种情况:

 11xxx ->    xxx    (ie 3 - 3 = 0)
100xxx ->   1xxx    (ie 4 - 3 = 1)
101xxx ->  10xxx    (ie 5 - 3 = 2)

所有其他前缀都不可达。

重复到最低位，你就完成了。

#!/bin/ruby

def div_by_3(i)
  i.div 3        # always return int http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/Numeric.html#method-i-div
end