Generate all subsets of a set using bitmasks in C Solution, output & explanation

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    const char items[] = {'a', 'b', 'c'};
    int n = 3;
    for (unsigned mask = 0; mask < (1u << n); mask++) {
        printf("{");
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
            if (mask & (1u << i))           /* bit i says: include item i */
                printf("%c", items[i]);
        printf("}%s", mask + 1 < (1u << n) ? " " : "\n");
    }
    return 0;
}

{} {a} {b} {ab} {c} {ac} {bc} {abc}