Reading/Writing Nibbles (without bit fields) in C/C++

Question

Is there an easy way to read/write a nibble in a byte without using bit fields? I'll always need to read both nibbles, but will need to write each nibble individually.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Use masks :

char byte;
byte = (byte & 0xF0) | (nibble1 & 0xF); // write low quartet
byte = (byte & 0x0F) | ((nibble2 & 0xF) << 4); // write high quartet

You may want to put this inside macros.