What is the best way to set a particular bit in a variable in C

Question

Consider a variable unsigned int a; in C.

Now say I want to set any i\'th bit in this variable to \'1\'.

Note that the variable has some value.

Answer 1

The most common way to do this is:

a |= (1 << i);

This is only two operations - a shift and an OR. It's hard to see how this might be improved upon.