What does x ^ y do in c?

Question

Im wondering what x ^ y does in c. I wrote a little example program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int b = (3 ^ 9);
    printf("%d\n", b);
}

The result is 10 but i dont know how to get to that solution. Con someone explain me how to do it mathematically?

Did you try to read about in in any of the thousands of available C documents and tutorials? For easier searching try "bitwise XOR operator". — Eugene Sh., Mar 05 '20 at 18:51
I couldn't find a proper dupe target. Maybe this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4843304/why-is-my-power-operator-not-working — ForceBru, Mar 05 '20 at 18:52

Weather Vane · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-05T19:10:58.040

3

That ^ is the XOR or exclusive-OR operator

decimal  3  binary  0011
decimal  9  binary  1001
            XOR     ----
decimal 10  binary  1010

It operates on aligned bits individually, so the result of any pair of bits in the operands does not affect any other bits.

edited Mar 05 '20 at 19:10

answered Mar 05 '20 at 18:53

Weather Vane

1 Answers1