C++ Bit Operators ^ - bitwise XOR (exclusive OR)
Example
int a = 5; // 0101b (0x05)
int b = 9; // 1001b (0x09)
int c = a ^ b; // 1100b (0x0C)
std::cout << "a = " << a << ", b = " << b << ", c = " << c << std::endl;
Output
a = 5, b = 9, c = 12
Why
A bit wise XOR (exclusive or) operates on the bit level and uses the following Boolean truth table:
true OR true = false
true OR false = true
false OR false = false
Notice that with an XOR operation true OR true = false where as with operations true AND/OR true = true, hence the exclusive nature of the XOR operation.
Using this, when the binary value for a (0101) and the binary value for b (1001) are XOR'ed together we get the binary value of 1100:
int a = 0 1 0 1
int b = 1 0 0 1 ^
---------
int c = 1 1 0 0
The bit wise XOR does not change the value of the original values unless specifically assigned to using the bit wise assignment compound operator ^=:
int a = 5; // 0101b (0x05)
a ^= 9; // a = 0101b ^ 1001b
The bit wise XOR can be utilized in many ways and is often utilized in bit mask operations for encryption and compression.
Note: The following example is often shown as an example of a nice trick. But should not be used in production code (there are better ways std::swap() to achieve the same result).
You can also utilize an XOR operation to swap two variables without a temporary:
int a = 42;
int b = 64;
// XOR swap
a ^= b;
b ^= a;
a ^= b;
std::cout << "a = " << a << ", b = " << b << "\n";
To productionalize this you need to add a check to make sure it can be used.
void doXORSwap(int& a, int& b)
{
// Need to add a check to make sure you are not swapping the same
// variable with itself. Otherwise it will zero the value.
if (&a != &b)
{
// XOR swap
a ^= b;
b ^= a;
a ^= b;
}
}
So though it looks like a nice trick in isolation it is not useful in real code. xor is not a base logical operation,but a combination of others: a^c=~(a&c)&(a|c)
also in 2015+ compilers variables may be assigned as binary:
int cn=0b0111;
