How can I access a specific group of bits from a variable?

Question

I have a variable with \"x\" number of bits. How can I extract a specific group of bits and then work on them in C?

Answer 1

work on bits with &, |. <<, >> operators. For example, if you have a value of 7 (integer) and you want to zero out the 2nd bit:

7 is 111

(zero-ing 2nd bit AND it with 101 (5 in decimal))

111 & 101 = 101 (5)

here's the code:

#include 

main ()
{
    int x=7;

    x= x&5;
    printf("x: %d",x);

}

You can do with other operators like the OR, shift left, shift right,etc.