Minimum Flips to Make a OR b Equal to c

Category

Bit Manipulation

Checkbox

Difficulty

Medium

Index

Key Ideas

The key idea to solve this problem is to use bitwise operations to manipulate the bits of the given integers and determine the minimum number of flips required to make the bitwise OR of two integers equal to a third integer.

Problem Number

1318

Problem Summary

Problem Summary: The problem "Minimum Flips to Make a OR b Equal to c" asks us to find the minimum number of bit flips required in two integers a and b to make their bitwise OR equal to another integer c. Key Pitfalls: 1. Care must be taken to handle the case when the ith bit of c is 0, but the corresponding bits of a and b are also 0. In such cases, flipping both bits may not be necessary. 2. Overflow can occur if the given integers are too large. It is important to handle potential overflow scenarios. 3. Consider all possible combinations of bit flips and choose the minimum number of flips that satisfy the conditions of the problem.

Solution Summary

The best solution for the problem "Minimum Flips to Make a OR b Equal to c" involves bitwise manipulation. First, we calculate the bitwise OR of a and b. Then, we compare each bit of the result with the corresponding bit in c. If the bit in c is 0 and the bit in the result is 1, we need to flip that bit. If the bit in c is 1 and the bit in the result is 0, we need to flip that bit and any subsequent bits that are 1. The number of flips needed is the sum of the flipped bits. By iterating through the bits, we can find the minimum number of flips required to make a OR b equal to c.