Bitwise XOR Operator in C

What is Bitwise?

As we know, bits are the smallest unit of a number and are mostly used in a computing system. So, in bitwise, we do operations on bits instead of numbers. Each bit has only one binary value, either 0 or 1. Most Programming languages like C, C++, Java, and Python work with 8, 16, or 32 bits, and these groups of bits is knowns as Bytes. For example, 1 Byte is combination of 8 bits.

A logical arithmetic unit known as ALU is an important part of our computer system. Multiplication, division, addition, and other mathematical operations are all carried out at the bit level inside the ALU. Bitwise operators are applied to those activities.

Bitwise XOR Operator

The Bitwise XOR operator operates on two different bits, and these two bits belong to two different numbers. These numbers are represented as the stream of binary bits.

The Caret ^ symbol in C programming stands for the bitwise XOR operator.

If both left and right operands have the same value, like both have false(0), the result of the bitwise operator will be False(0). similarly, if both left and right operands have the same value, like both have true (1), in that case, the result of bitwise will also be false(0).

On the other hand, when the two input bits vary, the bitwise XOR operator yields True (1).

As a result, XOR will produce True (1) if your input is True (1) and False (0).

Note: For the floating-point data, we cannot use bitwise XOR.

Truth Table of Bitwise XOR Operator:

Left Operand (A)	Right Operand (B)	Result (A ^ B)
1	0	1
0	1	1
1	1	0
0	0	0

In this case, the pair of bits Ai and Bi make up the binary sequence of the values A and B.

How does the Bitwise XOR Operator (^) Work?

Let's understand XOR operator’s working with an example. Let’s say, we have the values A=5 and B=10.

On variables A and B, we now need to use the Bitwise XOR operator. i.e., A ^ B.

The values of A and B must first be transformed into the binary form, or base-2 form, in order to perform the bitwise XOR.
We'll utilize 8 bits for the integer number to make calculations simpler. But keep in mind that the memory will only have 32 bits to record the integer value.
The A or 5 is equivalent to the binary value 00000101.
The B or 10 is equivalent to the binary value 0000 1010.
And now, we can infer from the Truth Table that the result will be 0 if the left operand and right operands are the same.
If the left operand and right operand are different, the outcome will be 1.
In the instance we use,
- The binary value of the left operand is 0000 0101.
- The binary value of the right operand is 0000 1010.

Therefore, our result in binary according to the truth table is 0000 1111, which is equal to 27 in decimal form. So, A XOR B or A^B=>5^10=27

C Program on XOR Operator

Example-1:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
 int A, B, R;
 A=5;
 B=10;
//Bitwise XOR operator
R = A^B;
printf ("Result of Bitwise XOR operator using formula R = A ^ B\n");
printf("\nResult of Bitwise XOR operator is : %d\n",R);
return 0;
 
}

Explanation

We have 3 variables in the program as mentioned above: A, B, and R.

A is given the number 5.

B is given the number 10.

We have the formula R = A^B for the XOR operator.

Using the printf() function, we are displaying our Result "R" on the screen in accordance with this formula.

Output

Example-2: Swap two numbers using XOR:

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
  int A = 5, B = 10;
 
printf("Before swap: A = %d 
B =  %d\n", A, B);
  A = A ^ B;
  B = A ^ B;
  A = A ^ B;
 
printf("After swap: A = %d  B =  %d\n", A, B);
 
return 0;
}

Code Explanation:

By XORing two variables together, the following C program allows us to swap the values of two variables.

We have A=5 and B = 10.

We perform A = A ^ B in the first phase, outcome is 2.

This result will be assigned to A.

Then 2nd phase will start means B = A ^ B, and outcome is 5.

This result will be assigned to B.

The last phase will start means A = A ^ B, outcome is 10.

This result will be assigned to A,

Therefore, the Final assigned value to A and B will be 10 and 5, respectively.

In this way, by using XOR, we can swap two numbers.

Program Output:

Bitwise XOR Operator in C

What is Bitwise?