2509. Minimize XOR

Medium
Greedy
Bit Manipulation

Description

Given two positive integers num1 and num2, find the positive integer x such that:

  • x has the same number of set bits as num2, and
  • The value x XOR num1 is minimal.

Note that XOR is the bitwise XOR operation.

Return the integer x. The test cases are generated such that x is uniquely determined.

The number of set bits of an integer is the number of 1's in its binary representation.

 

Example 1:

Input: num1 = 3, num2 = 5
Output: 3
Explanation:
The binary representations of num1 and num2 are 0011 and 0101, respectively.
The integer 3 has the same number of set bits as num2, and the value 3 XOR 3 = 0 is minimal.

Example 2:

Input: num1 = 1, num2 = 12
Output: 3
Explanation:
The binary representations of num1 and num2 are 0001 and 1100, respectively.
The integer 3 has the same number of set bits as num2, and the value 3 XOR 1 = 2 is minimal.

 

Constraints:

  • 1 <= num1, num2 <= 109

Hints

Hint 1
To arrive at a small xor, try to turn off some bits from num1
Hint 2
If there are still left bits to set, try to set them from the least significant bit

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