What does the ^ (caret) mean in Java syntax? Why does 6^3 return 5?
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Eric Leschinski
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user1276509
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2It's the lesser-used XOR operation. 1^0 = 1 See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/460542/operator-in-java – Caffeinated Apr 18 '12 at 20:26
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2Adel, you should create an answer. – Hiro2k Apr 18 '12 at 20:26
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2@Hiro2k - I did! But some gremlin in the SO-code automatically made it a comment. I am bitter now : – Caffeinated Apr 18 '12 at 20:27
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The same thing it means in every programming language? – Brian Roach Apr 18 '12 at 20:29
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@BrianRoach - Wait.. hmm, in python RegEXP it's the string start? – Caffeinated Apr 18 '12 at 20:30
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1@Brain: It's exponentiation in Visual Basic... And superscript in LaTeX... And beginning of line/string (depending on mode) in regular expressions... And "start going upwards" in befunge... And I think it's even "logical and" in APL. – cha0site Apr 18 '12 at 20:31
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1@Adel - A regex is not a programming language. It has the same meaning there in all languages as well. In this context, however, he clearly doesn't mean in a regex as shown in his question. – Brian Roach Apr 18 '12 at 20:32
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@BrianRoach - Gotcha, good point. Thank You So Much – Caffeinated Apr 18 '12 at 20:32
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@cha0site - Yet another reason not to consider VB a programming language :-D – Brian Roach Apr 18 '12 at 20:35
2 Answers
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It's the bitwise XOR operator. XOR is exclusive or.
6 in binary (lets assume 4 bits) is 0110, 3 in binary is 0011.
So, we get:
0110
0011 XOR
----
0101
And 0101 is 5.
cha0site
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Its also the *boolean* XOR operator, also that is probably used less often. – Jörn Horstmann Apr 18 '12 at 22:14
