C Interfaces and Implementations: Techniques for Creating Reusable Software

Chapter 13. Bit Vectors

The sets described in Chapter 9 can hold arbitrary elements because the elements are manipulated only by functions supplied by clients. Sets of integers are less flexible, but they’re used often enough to warrant a separate ADT. The Bit interface exports functions that manipulate bit vectors, which can be used to represent sets of integers from zero to N−1. For example, 256-bit vectors can be used to represent sets of characters efficiently.

Bit provides most of the set-manipulation functions provided by Set, and also a few functions that are specific to bit vectors. Unlike the sets provided by Set, the sets represented by bit vectors have a well-defined universe, which is the set of integers in the range zero to N−1. Thus, ...