What does the ^ operator do in Java?

Question

What function does the ^ (caret) operator serve in Java?

When I try this:

int a = 5^n;

...it gives me:

Answer 1

AraK's link points to the definition of exclusive-or, which explains how this function works for two boolean values.

The missing piece of information is how this applies to two integers (or integer-type values). Bitwise exclusive-or is applied to pairs of corresponding binary digits in two numbers, and the results are re-assembled into an integer result.

To use your example:

• The binary representation of 5 is 0101.
• The binary representation of 4 is 0100.

A simple way to define bitwise XOR is to say the result has a 1 in every place where the two input numbers differ.

With 4 and 5, the only difference is in the last place; so

0101 ^ 0100 = 0001 (5 ^ 4 = 1) .