Given a range [m, n] where 0 <= m <= n <= 2147483647, return the bitwise AND of all numbers in this range, inclusive.

Example 1:

Input: [5,7] Output: 4

Example 2:

Input: [0,1] Output: 0

Solution

Bitwise-AND of any two numbers will always produce a number less than or equal to the smaller number.

Consider the following example:

12 —- 1100 11 —- 1011 10 —- 1010 9 —- 1001 8 —- 1000 7 —- 0111 6 —- 0110 5 —- 0101

Desired Range: [5,12]

Starting from 12, the loop will first do
12 & 11 = 8

Next iteration, the loop will do
8 & 7 = 0

why did we skip anding of 10,9? Because even if we did so, the result would eventually be anded with 8 whose value would be lesser than equal to 8.

Hence, you start from the range end and keep working your way down the range till you reach the start.

while(n>m) n = n & n-1; return m&n;

Code

We encourage you to write a comment if you have a better solution or having any doubt on the above topic.