Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {

    uint8_t iteration = 0;
    uint16_t p2 = 1;
    uint16_t out = 0;

    while (val)
    {
        if(!(iteration & 1))
        {
            out += (val & 1) * p2;
            val >>= 1;
        }
        p2 <<= 1;
        iteration ++;
    }
    return out;
}

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

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

Solving Approach