Bit Spreading Interleave Bits with Zeros

Code

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

uint16_t spread_bits(uint8_t val) {
   uint16_t new_val;
   for(int i=0; i<8; i++){
    if(val & (1<<i)){
        new_val |= ( 1 << (i*2) );
    }
   }
    return new_val;
}

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

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

Solving Approach