0b00000000 = all off
0b00101010 = something on
0b00010101 = something else on
.
.
0b11111111 = all on
An array ?
Why not just an uint8_t variable or an int(16 bits) if you need more flags to mark the status pins and eventually set then ON or OFF ?
That uses direct port manipulation, to turn on/off each led without the repetitition of,
digitalWrite(pin_b, OFF);
digitalWrite(pin_c, OFF);
digitalWrite(pin_d, OFF);
digitalWrite(pin_e, OFF);
digitalWrite(pin_f, OFF);
digitalWrite(pin_g, OFF);
This is a very long way to do it, and rather unneeded, but as the OP said, it is an old code and already looked into it.