bit value generation doubt

I came across this link on how to generate the bitwise represenation of any int , char on one of the forums.

http://cboard.cprogramming.com/c-pro...-showbits.html

The logic that the program uses is

[insert]

Code:

---


void bits_uint(unsigned int value)
 {
    unsigned int bit;
    for ( bit = /* msb */(~0U >> 1) + 1; bit > 0; bit >>= 1 )
    {
      putchar(value & bit ? '1' : '0');
    }
  putchar('\n');
}

---

In the for loop the condition that the program uses is

for ( bit = /* msb */(~0U >> 1) + 1; bit > 0; bit >>= 1 )

What does this imply

bit >>= 1(greater than , greater than equal to ???????????????)


If i understand it now its supposed to mean

bit = bit >> 1;

Well it's like += say.

And you are correct.

bit = /* msb */(~0U >> 1) + 1;

Could also be written:

bit = /* msb */~(~0U>>1);

Which that makes slightly more obvious sense to me, since what you want is just the most significant bit set (eg, "1000000000"), which would be all bits set (~0), shift right once ("01111111111") and flip that (~).

By ANDing that with the value each time bit >>= 1, you can saying whether the corresponding bit in value is set.