Bit manipulations good practices

Question

As a beginner C programmer, I am wondering, what would be the best easy-to-read and easy-to-understand solution for setting control bits in a device. Are there any standards

Answer 1

You should make sure to initialize the bits to a known default value when you declare the variable to store their values. In C, when you declare a variable you are just reserving a block of memory at a address and the size of the block is based its type. If you don't initialize the variable you can encounter undefined / unexpected behavior since the value of the variable will be effected by whatever the value / state of the memory in that block was before you declared it. By initializing the variable to a default value, you are clearing this block of memory of its existing state and putting it in a know state.

As far as readability, you should use a bit field to store the values of the bit. A bit field enables you to store the values of the bits in a struct. This makes it easier to organize since you can use dot notation. Also, you should make sure to comment the declaration of the bit field to explain what the different fields are used for as a best practice. I hope this answers your question. Good luck with you C programming!