Thread: bit value check efficiency

Hello everyone,


I have a long array (char*) and I need to check which bit is the first bit whose value is 1.

I have two ways to implement,

1. Iterate each byte, then iterate each bit in each byte one by one;
2. Iterate each byte, and check whether the value of the byte itself is non-zero, if yes, then iterate each bit in the byte to find which bit is the first bit which is set to 1, or else skip this byte and continue to iterate next byte.

I think (2) is always faster, right? But I do not know why (2) is faster since it is just my personal estimation without any concrete basis analysis.


thanks in advance,
George