Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t ret= (uint16_t)val;
    ret = (ret & 0x0F) | ((ret << 4)&0xF00);
    ret = (ret & 0x0303) | ((ret << 2)&0x3030);
    ret = (ret & 0x1111) | ((ret << 1)&0x4444);
    return ret;

}

int main() {
    uint8_t val;
    scanf("%hhu", &val);

    uint16_t result = spread_bits(val);
    printf("%u", result);
    return 0;
}

Solving Approach