Converting from 8 bits to 1 byte

Question

I have a string of 8 bits and I want to convert it into 1 byte. I am not sure why my function is not working properly. I have 8 bits stored into an array of 8 unsigned chars. This is my method so far:

unsigned int bitsToBytes(unsigned char *bits)
{
  unsigned int sum = 0;
  for(int i = 7; i >= 0; i--)
  {
    sum += bits[i];
    sum<<=1;
  }
  return sum;

}

int main()
{
  unsigned char bits[8];
  unsigned int byt;
  byt = bitsToBytes(bits);
  cout << byt; //doesn't give me the right result
}

EDIT: My array of bits contains '1' and '0' in the array! Sorry for not being clear.

Might anyone know where I went wrong in this? I'm not sure why my bits aren't converting to bytes properly. Could anyone help? Thanks!

Solution

This should work properly, under normal situations.

What does the char[] contain? Does it contain '0', '1' instead of 0, 1?

To make sure, change line

sum += bits[i];

to

sum |= bits[i] & 1;

Also, as pointed out by Vaughn Cato in comments, you need to shift before adding.