How can you find a specific sequence of bits within an integer using Python?

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You can use bit manipulation and masking techniques to find a specific sequence of bits within an integer using Python. Here is an example function that searches for a specific 4-bit sequence (1010) within an integer and returns the position of the first occurrence:

def find_bit_sequence(num):
    # Define the bit sequence to search for (1010)
    pattern = 0b1010
    # Initialize a mask with the same number of bits as the pattern
    mask = (1 << 4) - 1
    # Loop over the bits in the integer and extract 4-bit segments
    for i in range(num.bit_length() - 3):
        # Extract the 4-bit segment using bit shifting and masking
        segment = (num >> i) & mask
        # Check if the segment matches the pattern
        if segment == pattern:
            # Return the position of the pattern within the integer
            return i
    # Return -1 if pattern is not found
    return -1

You can test this function with an example integer and print the result:

num = 0b110101001011
position = find_bit_sequence(num)
print(position)  # Output: 4

In this example, the function searches for the 4-bit sequence 1010 within the integer 0b110101001011 and returns the position where the sequence first appears (which is 4).