Bitwise XOR Operator in Programming (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

**Bitwise XOR Operator is represented by the caret symbol (^). It is used to perform a bitwise XOR operation on the individual bits of two operands. The XOR operator returns 1 if the corresponding bits in the two operands are different, and 0 if they are the same.

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What is Bitwise XOR?

Bitwise XOR (exclusive OR) is a binary operation that takes two equal-length binary representations and performs the logical XOR operation on each pair of corresponding bits. The result in each position is 1 if only one of the two bits is 1 but will be 0 if both are 0 or both are 1.

The truth table for the XOR (exclusive OR) operation is as follows:

A B A XOR B
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

In this table, A and B are the variables, and A XOR B is the expression representing the logical XOR operation. The table shows all possible combinations of truth values for A and B, and the resulting truth value of A XOR B for each combination.

The XOR operation returns 1 (true) if the inputs are different, and 0 (false) if they are the same. This is why the output is 1 for the second and third rows, where A and B have different values, and 0 for the first and fourth rows, where A and B have the same value.

Bitwise XOR operator:

The bitwise XOR operator is represented by the caret symbol (^) in many programming languages, including Python, C, C++, and Java.

result = operand1 **^ operand2;

Bitwise XOR operator in C:

C `

#include <stdio.h>

int main() { int a = 10; // 1010 in binary int b = 6; // 0110 in binary

int result = a ^ b; // 1100 in binary

printf("%d\n", result); // Output: 12

return 0;

}

`

Bitwise XOR operator in C++:

C++ `

#include using namespace std;

int main() { int a = 10; // 1010 in binary int b = 6; // 0110 in binary

int result = a ^ b; // 1100 in binary

cout << result << endl; // Output: 12

return 0;

}

`

Bitwise XOR operator in Java:

Java `

import java.io.*; class GFG { public static void main(String[] args) { int a = 10; // 1010 in binary int b = 6; // 0110 in binary

    int result = a ^ b; // 1100 in binary

    System.out.println(result); // Output: 12
}

}

`

Bitwise XOR operator in Python:

Python `

a = 10 # 1010 in binary b = 6 # 0110 in binary

result = a ^ b # 1100 in binary

print(result) # Output: 12

`

Bitwise XOR operator in C#:

C# `

using System;

class MainClass { public static void Main(string[] args) { int a = 10; // 1010 in binary int b = 6; // 0110 in binary

    int result = a ^ b; // 1100 in binary

    Console.WriteLine(result); // Output: 12
}

}

`

Bitwise XOR operator in Javascript:

JavaScript `

let a = 10; // 1010 in binary let b = 6; // 0110 in binary

let result = a ^ b; // 1100 in binary

console.log(result); // Output: 12

`

Use Cases of Bitwise XOR Operator:

The bitwise XOR operator (^) has several use cases in programming:

Applications of Bitwise XOR Operator:

Here are some applications of the bitwise XOR operator: