bitwise xor
There is a somewhat unusual operator in C++ called bitwise exclusive OR, also known as bitwise XOR. (In English this is usually pronounced "eks-or".) The bitwise XOR operator is written using the caret symbol ^. This operator is similar to the bitwise OR operator |, except that it evaluates to 1 for a given position when exactly one of the input bits for that position is 1. If both are 0 or both are 1, the XOR operator evaluates to 0:
0 ^ 0 == 0
0 ^ 1 == 1
1 ^ 0 == 1
1 ^ 1 == 0
Another way to look at bitwise XOR is that each bit in the result is a 1 if the input bits are different, or 0 if they are the same.
Here is a simple code example:
int x = 12; // binary: 1100
int y = 10; // binary: 1010
int z = x ^ y; // binary: 0110, or decimal 6
The ^ operator is often used to toggle (i.e. change from 0 to 1, or 1 to 0) some of the bits in an integer expression while leaving others alone. For example:
y = x ^ 1; // toggle the lowest bit in x, and store the result in y.
