CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c
zacharoni16
zacharoni16

Reputation: 307

Combined 3 unsigned chars into an unsigned int

I have a requirement to have an unsigned 3 byte type in C. I am looking for a way to pack them into a single unsigned int.

Is this safe or does this need to be stored inside an array/structure for the 24 bit size?

unsigned int pack_3Byte(unsigned char b1, unsigned char b2, unsigned char b3)
{
    return (b1 << 16) | (b2 << 8) | (b3);
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 265

Answers (1)

jforberg
jforberg

Reputation: 6762

Your code is correct but like Olaf says you should use the types uint8_t and uint32_t to ensure that your types are really the width you expect them to be.

This may not be a problem right now, but you should also be aware that the bytes in an integer are stored in different order on different processors. This is called endianness.

Upvotes: 1

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