Question

i am reading section about A Binary Recursive Gcd Algorithm,where this definition is given
let v_2(a) denotes the 2-adic valuation of a, i.e. the number of consecutive zeroes in the least signicant bits of the binary representation of a ,so i am trying to find v_2(a) here is code for this

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
    int total=0;
    int n,k;
    cout << "enter value n ";
    k=0;
    cin >> n;
    while(k!=1)
    {
        if (k==1)
        {
            break;
        }
        k=n%2;
        n>>=1;
        total++;

    }
    cout<<total<<"  "<<endl;

    return 0;
}

when i enter number 12 (in binary it is 1100) it should give me number 2 but it shows 3,what is wrong?please help me

Answer 1

You’re breaking out of the while too late, since you’re running total++ when k==1 has been reached.

Move the if (k==1) block after the k=n%2; line.

Note: The k variable isn’t actually necessary. You could simplify the loop to:

while((n%2)==0) {
  n>>=1;
  total++;
}