这可以在O(k)中完成，其中k是设置的比特数。

int NumberOfSetBits(int n)
{
    int count = 0;

    while (n){
        ++ count;
        n = (n - 1) & n;
    }

    return count;
}

几个悬而未决的问题:-

如果这个数是负的呢? 如果这个数字是1024，那么“迭代除以2”方法将迭代10次。

我们可以修改算法以支持负数:-

count = 0
while n != 0
if ((n % 2) == 1 || (n % 2) == -1
    count += 1
  n /= 2  
return count

现在为了克服第二个问题，我们可以编写这样的算法:-

int bit_count(int num)
{
    int count=0;
    while(num)
    {
        num=(num)&(num-1);
        count++;
    }
    return count;
}

完整参考请参见:

http://goursaha.freeoda.com/Miscellaneous/IntegerBitCount.html

private int get_bits_set(int v)
{
    int c; // 'c' accumulates the total bits set in 'v'
    for (c = 0; v>0; c++)
    {
        v &= v - 1; // Clear the least significant bit set
    }
    return c;
}

如果你使用c++，另一个选择是使用模板元编程:

// recursive template to sum bits in an int
template <int BITS>
int countBits(int val) {
        // return the least significant bit plus the result of calling ourselves with
        // .. the shifted value
        return (val & 0x1) + countBits<BITS-1>(val >> 1);
}

// template specialisation to terminate the recursion when there's only one bit left
template<>
int countBits<1>(int val) {
        return val & 0x1;
}

用法如下:

// to count bits in a byte/char (this returns 8)
countBits<8>( 255 )

// another byte (this returns 7)
countBits<8>( 254 )

// counting bits in a word/short (this returns 1)
countBits<16>( 256 )

当然，你可以进一步扩展这个模板来使用不同的类型(甚至是自动检测位大小)，但为了清晰起见，我让它保持简单。

edit:忘了说这很好，因为它应该在任何c++编译器中工作，它基本上只是为你展开循环，如果一个常量值用于比特计数(换句话说，我很确定这是你能找到的最快的通用方法)

这是一个可移植的模块(ANSI-C)，它可以在任何架构上对每个算法进行基准测试。

你的CPU有9位字节?目前它实现了2个算法，K&R算法和一个字节查找表。查找表的平均速度比K&R算法快3倍。如果有人能想出办法使“黑客的喜悦”算法可移植，请随意添加它。

#ifndef _BITCOUNT_H_
#define _BITCOUNT_H_

/* Return the Hamming Wieght of val, i.e. the number of 'on' bits. */
int bitcount( unsigned int );

/* List of available bitcount algorithms.  
 * onTheFly:    Calculate the bitcount on demand.
 *
 * lookupTalbe: Uses a small lookup table to determine the bitcount.  This
 * method is on average 3 times as fast as onTheFly, but incurs a small
 * upfront cost to initialize the lookup table on the first call.
 *
 * strategyCount is just a placeholder. 
 */
enum strategy { onTheFly, lookupTable, strategyCount };

/* String represenations of the algorithm names */
extern const char *strategyNames[];

/* Choose which bitcount algorithm to use. */
void setStrategy( enum strategy );

#endif

.

#include <limits.h>

#include "bitcount.h"

/* The number of entries needed in the table is equal to the number of unique
 * values a char can represent which is always UCHAR_MAX + 1*/
static unsigned char _bitCountTable[UCHAR_MAX + 1];
static unsigned int _lookupTableInitialized = 0;

static int _defaultBitCount( unsigned int val ) {
    int count;

    /* Starting with:
     * 1100 - 1 == 1011,  1100 & 1011 == 1000
     * 1000 - 1 == 0111,  1000 & 0111 == 0000
     */
    for ( count = 0; val; ++count )
        val &= val - 1;

    return count;
}

/* Looks up each byte of the integer in a lookup table.
 *
 * The first time the function is called it initializes the lookup table.
 */
static int _tableBitCount( unsigned int val ) {
    int bCount = 0;

    if ( !_lookupTableInitialized ) {
        unsigned int i;
        for ( i = 0; i != UCHAR_MAX + 1; ++i )
            _bitCountTable[i] =
                ( unsigned char )_defaultBitCount( i );

        _lookupTableInitialized = 1;
    }

    for ( ; val; val >>= CHAR_BIT )
        bCount += _bitCountTable[val & UCHAR_MAX];

    return bCount;
}

static int ( *_bitcount ) ( unsigned int ) = _defaultBitCount;

const char *strategyNames[] = { "onTheFly", "lookupTable" };

void setStrategy( enum strategy s ) {
    switch ( s ) {
    case onTheFly:
        _bitcount = _defaultBitCount;
        break;
    case lookupTable:
        _bitcount = _tableBitCount;
        break;
    case strategyCount:
        break;
    }
}

/* Just a forwarding function which will call whichever version of the
 * algorithm has been selected by the client 
 */
int bitcount( unsigned int val ) {
    return _bitcount( val );
}

#ifdef _BITCOUNT_EXE_

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

/* Use the same sequence of pseudo random numbers to benmark each Hamming
 * Weight algorithm.
 */
void benchmark( int reps ) {
    clock_t start, stop;
    int i, j;
    static const int iterations = 1000000;

    for ( j = 0; j != strategyCount; ++j ) {
        setStrategy( j );

        srand( 257 );

        start = clock(  );

        for ( i = 0; i != reps * iterations; ++i )
            bitcount( rand(  ) );

        stop = clock(  );

        printf
            ( "\n\t%d psudoe-random integers using %s: %f seconds\n\n",
              reps * iterations, strategyNames[j],
              ( double )( stop - start ) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC );
    }
}

int main( void ) {
    int option;

    while ( 1 ) {
        printf( "Menu Options\n"
            "\t1.\tPrint the Hamming Weight of an Integer\n"
            "\t2.\tBenchmark Hamming Weight implementations\n"
            "\t3.\tExit ( or cntl-d )\n\n\t" );

        if ( scanf( "%d", &option ) == EOF )
            break;

        switch ( option ) {
        case 1:
            printf( "Please enter the integer: " );
            if ( scanf( "%d", &option ) != EOF )
                printf
                    ( "The Hamming Weight of %d ( 0x%X ) is %d\n\n",
                      option, option, bitcount( option ) );
            break;
        case 2:
            printf
                ( "Please select number of reps ( in millions ): " );
            if ( scanf( "%d", &option ) != EOF )
                benchmark( option );
            break;
        case 3:
            goto EXIT;
            break;
        default:
            printf( "Invalid option\n" );
        }

    }

 EXIT:
    printf( "\n" );

    return 0;
}

#endif

你要找的函数通常被称为二进制数的“横向和”或“总体数”。Knuth在前分册1A，第11-12页中讨论了它(尽管在第2卷，4.6.3-(7)中有简要的参考)。

经典文献是Peter Wegner的文章“二进制计算机中的一种计数技术”，摘自ACM通讯，卷3(1960)第5号，第322页。他给出了两种不同的算法，一种针对“稀疏”(即1的数量很少)的数字进行了优化，另一种针对相反的情况。