How do i represent bit info in C?

Question

I need to store a value between 0-15 in C , 4 bits are enough for this. How can I just have a variable of 4 bits? Space is a constraint here

Answer 1

Consider using a char. Yeah, it's 8-bits, but you can use the bit shift operators (<< and >>) to store values in the other 4 bits.

Edit: Per the comments below, an unsigned char is, in fact, preferable over char to avoid issues with the sign bit.

Answer 2

You can use a bitfield to store your 4 bits, however, unless you've several of them adjacent in a struct, you won't save any space over storing the value in a byte.