Bitwise AND of Numbers Range Solutions in C++

// Source : https://leetcode.com/problems/bitwise-and-of-numbers-range/
// Author : Hao Chen
// Date   : 2015-06-08



#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

/*
    Idea: 
    1) we know when a number add one, some of the right bit changes from 0 to 1 or  from 1 to 0
    2) if a bit is 0, then AND will cause this bit to 0 eventually.
    So, we can just simply check how many left bits are same for m and n. 

    for example: 
        5 is 101
        6 is 110
        when 5 adds 1, then the right two bits are changed.  the result is 100

        6 is 110
        7 is 111
        when 6 adds 1, then the right one bit is changed. the result is 110.


         9 is 1001
        10 is 1010
        11 is 1011
        12 is 1100
        Comparing from 9 to 12, we can see the first left bit is same, that's result.
*/
int rangeBitwiseAnd(int m, int n) {
    int mask = 0xffffffff;

    /* find out the same bits in left side*/
    while (mask != 0) {
        if ((m & mask) == (n & mask)) {
            break;
        }
        mask <<= 1;
    }

    return m & mask;

}

int main(int argc, char**argv) {
    int m=5, n=7;
    if (argc>2){
        m = atoi(argv[1]);
        n = atoi(argv[2]);
    }
    cout << "range( " << m << ", " << n << " ) = " <<  rangeBitwiseAnd(m, n) << endl;
    return 0;
}