Array Bitwise Or Bitwise Representation GetHashCode Tree

XOR

Exclusive-or modifies a bit pattern. If both operands have a bit set, the result does not have that bit set. If neither has a bit set, the result also does not have that bit set.

Pattern, continued

If one operand but not the other has the bit set, the result is set. So to restate, one but not both operands will result in a 1 bit.

Input and output

Two numbers (operands) are passed to the XOR binary operator. And the result is a third number, containing the appropriate bits set to 1 and 0.

Operand: 100
Operand: 001
Result:  101

Example

The XOR operator is a binary operator—it requires 2 operands. An operand is a numeric argument to the operator (the numbers on each side of the "^" caret symbol).

Here We use a method (GetIntBinaryString) that shows us the bits that are set in each number.

And We see the bits set in the first operand, the second operand, and the result returned by the XOR operation.

Result The first 2 lines are the bits of the operands. The third line is the result from the "^" operator applied to those operands.

Tip In places where only one bit is set in both operands, the result value has that same bit set. Otherwise no bits were set.

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Demonstrate XOR for two integers.
        int a = 5550 ^ 800;
        Console.WriteLine(GetIntBinaryString(5550));
        Console.WriteLine(GetIntBinaryString(800));
        Console.WriteLine(GetIntBinaryString(a));
        Console.WriteLine();

        // Repeat.
        int b = 100 ^ 33;
        Console.WriteLine(GetIntBinaryString(100));
        Console.WriteLine(GetIntBinaryString(33));
        Console.WriteLine(GetIntBinaryString(b));
    }

    static string GetIntBinaryString(int value)
    {
        return Convert.ToString(value, 2).PadLeft(32, '0');
    }
}00000000000000000001010110101110
00000000000000000000001100100000
00000000000000000001011010001110

00000000000000000000000001100100
00000000000000000000000000100001
00000000000000000000000001000101

A discussion

Bitwise operators are useful in some cases. Typically, if you don't have limited memory on your system, you can replace bitwise operations with arrays.

Info For some programs, such as those that use digital trees, you can use bitwise operators to test the bit patterns at each node.

And This yields an efficient search tree. Bitwise operators can also be used for hash code computations.

A summary

The XOR binary operator receives 2 operands. It returns a number that contains a bit set for each exclusive bit set. Often this operator is more trouble than it is worth.