What Does the Caret Operator (^ XOR) Do in Python Binary Operations?

Bitwise XOR (Exclusive OR): Unveiling the Caret Operator

In Python, the caret (^) operator represents the bitwise exclusive OR operation. It evaluates to True if and only if its arguments differ (one True, one False). This operation can be applied to binary values, and the output is also a binary value.

To illustrate, let's consider the following examples:

<code class="python">>>> 0^0
0
>>> 1^1
0
>>> 1^0
1
>>> 0^1
1</code>

These examples demonstrate that the ^ operator returns 0 if both inputs are equal (True or False) and 1 if the inputs differ (one True, one False).

Returning to the outputs you observed earlier:

<code class="python">>>> 8^3
11</code>

The bitwise XOR operation in this case can be broken down as follows:

1000  # 8 (binary)
0011  # 3 (binary)
----  # APPLY XOR ('vertically')
1011  # result = 11 (binary)

Therefore, 8^3 results in a binary value of 1011, which converts to the decimal value 11.

In summary, the caret operator in Python performs a bitwise exclusive OR operation, returning True if its inputs differ and False if they're the same. This operation can be applied to binary numbers to modify or create new binary values.

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