Sum of two integers

Problem

Write a function that add two numbers A and B. You should not use + or any arithmetic operators.

Notice: There is no need to read data from standard input stream. Both parameters are given in function aplusb, you job is to calculate the sum and return it.

Clarification

Are a and b both 32-bit integers? Yes.

Can I use bit operation? Sure you can.

Example

Given a = 1 and b = 2 return 3

Challenge

Of course you can just return a + b to get accepted. But Can you challenge not do it like that?

Solution

+ is not allowed to use, however we can directly manipulate bits to simulate the plus operation.

In its binary format, 1 + 0 will be 1, 0 + 0 will be 0, 1 + 1 will become 0, and the carry becomes 1. So the result without carry can be calculated by xor a ^ b, and the carry a & b, if carry is not 0, shift it left by 1, and add again:

while(b != 0) {
    int carry = a & b;
    a = a ^ b;
    b = carry << 1;
}

For example, a = 1 (binary as 1), b = 3 (binary as 11)

======    Iteration #1    ======
                   a =          1
                   b =         11
        carry(a & b) =          1
        new a(a ^ b) =         10
new b(shifted carry) =         10

======    Iteration #2    ======
                   a =         10
                   b =         10
        carry(a & b) =         10
        new a(a ^ b) =          0
new b(shifted carry) =        100

======    Iteration #3    ======
                   a =          0
                   b =        100
        carry(a & b) =          0
        new a(a ^ b) =        100
new b(shifted carry) =          0

Final Result: 4

How about negative numbers?

Since negative numbers are in the form of Two's Complement, they can be treated in the same way. For example a = 1, b = -3:

======    Iteration #1    ======
                   a =                                1
                   b = 11111111111111111111111111111101
        carry(a & b) =                                1
        new a(a ^ b) = 11111111111111111111111111111100
new b(shifted carry) =                               10

======    Iteration #2    ======
                   a = 11111111111111111111111111111100
                   b =                               10
        carry(a & b) =                                0
        new a(a ^ b) = 11111111111111111111111111111110
new b(shifted carry) =                                0

Final Result: -2