EXCEL XOR multiple bits

Question

Okay I have two cells with a string of bits 0111010 and 0101011. I want to XOR the two together so that the resulting cell would be 0010001.

I know you can use this for

Answer 1

Here is a solution without using VBA:
=TEXT(SUMPRODUCT(MOD(INT(MID(A1,{1,2,3,4,5,6,7},1))+INT(MID(A2,{1,2,3,4,5,6,7},1)),2),{1000000,100000,10000,1000,100,10,1}),"0000000")

This calculates the bitwise XOR using SUMPRODUCT and TEXT to turn it into a string of bits.

Note: this formula requires both input values to have length 7 (as per your own example) and the output will also have length 7. To allow for different input lengths, simply implement the necessary truncation and/or padding.

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You can choose to use some shorthand definitions:

• define BitPositions as ={1,2,3,4,5,6,7} (7-bit),
• define BitStrings as ={1000000,100000,10000,1000,100,10,1} (7-bit),
• define BitFormat as ="0000000" (7-bit),

then your formula can be made a bit more legible/shorter/cleaner:
=TEXT(SUMPRODUCT(MOD(INT(MID(A1,BitPositions,1))+INT(MID(A2,BitPositions,1)),2),BitStrings),BitFormat)

This also makes it easier to work with larger strings of bits, e.g.:

• define BitPositions as =ROW(INDIRECT("1:32")) (32-bit),
• define BitStrings as =10^(32-ROW(INDIRECT("1:32"))) (32-bit),
• define BitFormat as =REPT("0",32) (32-bit)

Should you wish to implement NOT/OR/AND/etc. then you can get your inspiration from these formulas for the decimal counterparts; here are some more in-depth explanations for XOR with SUMPRODUCT though it also uses decimal inputs.