Counting the number of flags set on an enumeration

The following code will give you the number of bits that are set for a given number of any type varying in size from byte up to long.

public static int GetSetBitCount(long lValue)
{
  int iCount = 0;

  //Loop the value while there are still bits
  while (lValue != 0)
  {
    //Remove the end bit
    lValue = lValue & (lValue - 1);

    //Increment the count
    iCount++;
  }

  //Return the count
  return iCount;
}

This code is very efficient as it only iterates once for each bit rather than once for every possible bit as in the other examples.

After looking on the site Assaf suggested I managed to find a slightly different solution that I got working for Int32's.

Here's the code for anyone else:

    internal static UInt32 Count(this Skills skills)
    {
        UInt32 v = (UInt32)skills;
        v = v - ((v >> 1) & 0x55555555); // reuse input as temporary
        v = (v & 0x33333333) + ((v >> 2) & 0x33333333); // temp
        UInt32 c = ((v + (v >> 4) & 0xF0F0F0F) * 0x1010101) >> 24; // count
        return c;
    }