Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t result = val;
    
    result = (result | (result << 4)) & 0x0F0F; // spread 4-bit nibbles
    result = (result | (result << 2)) & 0x3333; // spread pairs of bits
    result = (result | (result << 1)) & 0x5555; // spread individual bits
    return result;
}

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

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

Solving Approach