Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t ret = 0;
    for ( int i = 7; i >= 0; i--)
    {
        if ( val & ( 1 << i) ) 
        {
            ret |= ( 1 << (i * 2));
        }
    }
    return ret;
}

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

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

Solving Approach