Splitting a hex number

Question

newbie question.

Say for example, I have the hex number 0xABCDEF, how would i split it into 0xAB,0xCD and 0xEF? Is it like this?

unsigned int number = 0xABCDEF
unsigned int ef = a & 0x000011;
unsigned int cd = (a>>8) & 0x000011;
unsigned int ab = (a>>16) & 0x000011;

Thanks

Answer 1

Use 0xff as your mask to remove all but 8 bits of a number:

unsigned int number = 0xABCDEF
unsigned int ef = number & 0xff;
unsigned int cd = (number>>8) & 0xff;
unsigned int ab = (number>>16) & 0xff;

Answer 2

unsigned int number = 0xABCDEF
unsigned int ef = number & 0xff;
unsigned int cd = (number >> 8) & 0xff;
unsigned int ab = (number >> 16) & 0xff;

Instead of the bitwise and (&) operation, you might intead want ef, cd, ab to be unsigned char types, depending on the rest of your code and how you're working with these variables. In which case you cast to unsigned char:

unsigned int number = 0xABCDEF
unsigned char ef = (unsigned char) number;
unsigned char cd = (unsigned char) (number >> 8);
unsigned char ab = (unsigned char) (number >> 16);