C# Language: Changing the First Four Bits in a Byte

Question

In order to utilize a byte to its fullest potential, I\'m attempting to store two unique values into a byte: one in the first four bits and another in the second four bits. How

Answer 1

I know you asked specifically about clearing out the first four bits, which has been answered several times, but I wanted to point out that if you have two values <= decimal 15, you can combine them into 8 bits simply with this:

    public int setBits(int upperFour, int lowerFour)
    {
        return upperFour << 4 | lowerFour;            
    }

The result will be xxxxyyyy where

xxxx = upperFour
yyyy = lowerFour

And that is what you seem to be trying to do.