Bit Shift and Bitwise operations to encode RGB values

Question

I would like to encode the RGB color to a single integer value.

Let's say the algorithm for encoding is like this:

int code = (blue * 256 * 256) + (green * 256) + red

How can encode/decode RGB components to/from the code using bit shift and/or bitwise operators?

Answer 1

    int blueMask = 0xFF0000, greenMask = 0xFF00, redMask = 0xFF;
    int r = 12, g = 13, b = 14;
    int bgrValue = (b << 16) + (g << 8) + r;
    System.out.println("blue:" + ((bgrValue & blueMask) >> 16));
    System.out.println("red:" + ((bgrValue & redMask)));
    System.out.println("green:" + ((bgrValue & greenMask) >> 8));

Answer 2

If you simply want to/from RGB conversion and don't care how I would suggest using java.awt.Color

int r = 255; //red
int g = 255; //green
int b = 255; //blue
int a = 255; //alpha
Color c = new Color(r,g,b,a);

The using the getRGB method and getRed, getBlue, getGreen methods

int RGB = c.getRGB();
int red = c.getRed();
int blue = c.getBlue();
int green = c.getGreen();

Alternatively you can construct a color object using the Color(r,g,b) constructor, it will have default 255 alpha.

With bit operations (ARGB, 32 bit colorspace). Constructing the RGB color:

int alpha = 255;    
int red = 128;
int green = 128;
int blue = 128;
int RGB = (alpha << 24);
RGB = RGB | (red << 16);
RGB = RGB | (green << 8);
RGB = RGB | (blue);

System.out.println(Integer.toBinaryString(RGB));

Out 11111111100000001000000010000000

Decoding is done as in the link in the comment.

Answer 3

Here is a mock program that I've done up that might assist you. I approached the conversion much like Dev Blanked based off an old program I did, but he answered while I was putting the program together. Since I did the work anyways, figured I'd share in case it helped in any way.

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.math.*;

public class RGB{

public static void main(String[]args){
    Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    int code; //Code for the color
    int red, green, blue; //Individual colors
    int rMask = 0xFF0000, gMask = 0xFF00, bMask = 0xFF; //Masks for the colors

    //Take input
    System.out.println("Please enter the red color. Range [0, 255] only please.");
    red = scan.nextInt();
    System.out.println("Please enter the green color. Range [0, 255] only please.");
    green = scan.nextInt();
    System.out.println("Please enter the blue color. Range [0, 255] only please.");
    blue = scan.nextInt();

    //Generate code based on Behnil's way.
    code = 0;
    code += (int) (red * Math.pow(2, 16));
    code += (int) (green * Math.pow(2, 8));
    code += (int) (blue * Math.pow(2,0));
    System.out.println("The code is " + code + ".");

    //Clear values
    red = 0;
    green = 0;
    blue = 0;

    //Obtain values.
    red = (code & rMask) >> 16;
    green = (code & gMask) >> 8;
    blue = (code & bMask);

    System.out.println("Your red value is: " + red);
    System.out.println("Your green value is: " + green);
    System.out.println("Your blue value is: " + blue);      
}

}