c - insert array of hex codes into an integer

Question

I'm trying to do something that I thought would be pretty basic but either I'm just ignoring something obvious or it is actually a bit tricky. My problem is: I have an array of 4 chars that contains 4 hex values. For example:

array[0] = 0xD8
array[1] = 0xEC
array[2] = 0xA2 
array[3] = 0x83

I want to store this array in an integer with the combined value, in this case 0xD8ECA283

I've tried doing logical OR and then shifting the bits and with this method I managed to store the value of 0xD8 in the integer, but not the rest. Any tips would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Use the binary or operator, and an integer whose precision is guaranteed to be at least 32 bits, which is the type unsigned long (although the type uint_least32_t could be also used).

Unsigned integer is used so any potential undefined and/or implementation defined behavior that is present when shifting signed integers is avoided.

This solution is independent of endianness.

unsigned long a = ( ( ( unsigned long )array[0] & 0xFF ) << 24 ) |
                  ( ( ( unsigned long )array[1] & 0xFF ) << 16 ) |
                  ( ( ( unsigned long )array[2] & 0xFF ) << 8 ) |
                  ( ( ( unsigned long )array[3] & 0xFF ) << 0 ) ;

Casts to ( unsigned long ) are made to avoid intermediate implicit conversion to int.
The & 0xFF operation is there to remove unnecessary bits(if there were any in an unlikely scenario where CHAR_BIT != 8).