Question

I have this number in hex string:

002A05.

I need to set 7-th bit of this number to 1, so after conversion I will get

022A05

But it has to work with every 6 chars hex number.

I tried converting hex string to integer via strtol, but that function strip leading zeros.

Please help me how can I solve it.

Answer 1

In a 24-bit number bit #7 (counting from the left, as you did in your example, not from the right, as is done conventionally) is always going to be in the second byte from the left. You can solve your problem without converting the entire number to integer by taking that second hex digit, converting it to a number 0..15, setting its bit #3 (again counting from the left), and converting the result back to a hex digit.

int fromHex(char c) {
    c = toupper(c);
    if (c >= '0' && c <= '9') {
        return c-'0';
    } else {
        return c-'A'+10;
    }
}
char toHexDigit(int n) {
    return n < 10 ? '0'+n : 'A'+n-10;
}

char myNum[] = "002A05";
myNum[1] = toHexDigit(fromHex(myNum[1]) | 2);
printf("%s\n", myNum);

This prints ‘022A05’ (link to ideone).