Write a C program to swap two numbers using bitwise XOR operator and without using third temp variable.

Swapping two numbers using bitwise operator XOR is a programming trick that is usually asked in technical interviews. It does not use a third temp variable for swapping values between two variables. This solution only works for unsigned integer types. It won't work for floating point, pointers, and struct/union types.

Here, we are using XOR (^) operator to swap two integers. If you don't get confused the XOR operator returns the second number if the result of two XOR-ed numbers is again XOR-ed with first original number, and returns the first number if the result of two XOR-ed numbers is again XOR-ed with second original number.

Now let's understand it by an example, imagine we have two numbers 5 and 7. The XOR of 5 and 7 (5 ^ 7) will be 2, further, if we XOR 2 with 5, we will get 7 or if we XOR 2 with 7 we will get 5. This trick helps in swapping the numbers.

In the following C program we swap the values of two variables by XORing these variables with each other. We have n1 = 5 and n2 = 7. In first step, we do n1 = n1 ^ n2; which results 2. This result is stored back in n1. In second step, we do n2 = n1 ^ n2; that is 2 ^ 7. It will return 5, which gets assigned to n2. So, till now one number got swapped. In third step, we do n1 = n1 ^ n2; that is 2 ^ 5. It will return 7, which gets assigned to n1. Hereby, n1 and n2 are swapped.

 /* C program to swap two integers using bitwise operators */
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
  int n1 = 5, n2 = 7;
 
  printf("Before swap: n1: %d \t n2: %d\n", n1, n2);
 
  n1 = n1 ^ n2;
  n2 = n1 ^ n2;
  n1 = n1 ^ n2;
 
  printf("After swap: n1: %d \t n2: %d\n", n1, n2);
 
  return 0;
}
 
OUTPUT
======
Before swap: n1: 5       n2: 7
After swap: n1: 7        n2: 5

Following is another C program that swaps two numbers using arithmetic operators without using a third temp variable.

 /* C program to swap two integers using bitwise operators */
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
  int n1 = 5, n2 = 7;
 
  printf("Before swap: n1: %d \t n2: %d\n", n1, n2);
 
  n1 = n1 + n2;
  n2 = n1 - n2;
  n1 = n1 - n2;
 
  printf("After swap: n1: %d \t n2: %d\n", n1, n2);
 
  return 0;
}
 
OUTPUT
======
Before swap: n1: 5       n2: 7
After swap: n1: 7        n2: 5

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