Forward merge of r67822 to py3k: add bit_length method to int.

2 files changed, 39 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst
index a9eb0ba..61084c8 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/2.7.rst
@@ -66,7 +66,23 @@ Other Language Changes
 
 Some smaller changes made to the core Python language are:
 
-* List of changes to be written here.
+* The :func:`int` and :func:`long` types gained a ``bit_length``
+  method that returns the number of bits necessary to represent
+  its argument in binary::
+
+      >>> n = 37
+      >>> bin(37)
+      '0b100101'
+      >>> n.bit_length()
+      6
+      >>> n = 2**123-1
+      >>> n.bit_length()
+      123
+      >>> (n+1).bit_length()
+      124
+
+  (Contributed by Fredrik Johansson and Victor Stinner; :issue:`3439`.)
+
 
 .. ======================================================================
 
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.1.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.1.rst
index a244568..7df4d1e 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.1.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.1.rst
@@ -66,4 +66,26 @@ This article explains the new features in Python 3.1, compared to 3.0.
 .. ======================================================================
 
 
+Other Language Changes
+======================
+
+Some smaller changes made to the core Python language are:
+
+* The :func:`int` type gained a ``bit_length`` method that returns the
+  number of bits necessary to represent its argument in binary::
+
+      >>> n = 37
+      >>> bin(37)
+      '0b100101'
+      >>> n.bit_length()
+      6
+      >>> n = 2**123-1
+      >>> n.bit_length()
+      123
+      >>> (n+1).bit_length()
+      124
+
+  (Contributed by Fredrik Johansson and Victor Stinner; :issue:`3439`.)
+
+
 .. ======================================================================