> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.syntblaze.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # C Bitwise XOR The `^` operator in C is the bitwise Exclusive OR (XOR) operator. It performs a logical XOR operation on each corresponding pair of bits from two integral operands. The operator evaluates to `1` if the compared bits are different, and `0` if they are identical. ```c theme={"dark"} result = operand1 ^ operand2; ``` ## Bitwise Evaluation The operator evaluates operands at the binary level according to the following truth table: | Bit A | Bit B | A ^ B | | :---: | :---: | :---: | | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 0 | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 0 | ## Technical Constraints and Behavior * **Type Restrictions:** The `^` operator requires both operands to be of integral types (e.g., `char`, `short`, `int`, `long`, `unsigned`). Attempting to use floating-point types (`float`, `double`) will result in a compilation error. * **Integer Promotion:** Before the bitwise operation occurs, C applies standard integer promotions. Operands with types smaller than `int` (like `char` or `short`) are implicitly promoted to `int` or `unsigned int`. The operation is then performed on the promoted types. * **Compound Assignment:** C supports the `^=` compound assignment operator, which applies the bitwise XOR and assigns the result to the left operand (`a ^= b` is semantically equivalent to `a = a ^ b`). ## Mathematical Properties The bitwise XOR operator adheres to several strict algebraic properties: * **Identity:** `A ^ 0 == A` (XORing a value with zero leaves the value unchanged). * **Self-Inverse:** `A ^ A == 0` (XORing a value with itself results in zero). * **Commutativity:** `A ^ B == B ^ A` (The order of operands does not affect the result). * **Associativity:** `(A ^ B) ^ C == A ^ (B ^ C)` (The grouping of operands does not affect the result). ## Execution Example The following code demonstrates the bit-by-bit evaluation of the `^` operator: ```c theme={"dark"} #include int main() { unsigned char a = 12; unsigned char b = 10; unsigned char result = a ^ b; /* Binary Evaluation: 0000 1100 (a = 12) ^ 0000 1010 (b = 10) 0000 0110 (result = 6) */ printf("Result: %d\n", result); // Outputs: Result: 6 return 0; } ```

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