Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
    uint16_t result = 0;     // 16-bit to hold spread bits

    for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
        uint16_t bit = (val >> i) & 1u;   // extract bit
        result |= (bit << (2 * i));       // place at even position
    }

    return result;
}

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

    uint16_t result = spread_bits(val);
    printf("%u\n", result);

    return 0;
}

Solving Approach