User Guide

60 Chapter 2: ActionScript Language Reference

^ (bitwise XOR)

Availability

Flash Player 5.

Usage

expression1 ^ expression2

Parameters

expression1,expression2

A number.

Returns

A 32-bit integer.

Description

Operator (bitwise); converts expression1 and expression2 to 32-bit unsigned integers, and

returns a 1 in each bit position where the corresponding bits in

expression1 or expression2,

but not both, are 1. Floating-point numbers are converted to integers by discarding any digits

after the decimal point. The result is a new 32-bit integer.

Positive integers are converted to an unsigned hex value with a maximum value of 4294967295 or

0xFFFFFFFF; values larger than the maximum have their most significant digits discarded when

they are converted so the value is still 32-bit. Negative numbers are converted to an unsigned hex

value via the two’s complement notation, with the minimum being -2147483648 or

0x800000000; numbers less than the minimum are converted to two’s complement with greater

precision and also have the most significant digits discarded.

The return value is interpreted as a two’s complement number with sign, so the return value will

be an integer in the range -2147483648 to 2147483647.

For more information, see “Operator precedence and associativity” in Using ActionScript in Flash.

Example

The following example uses the bitwise XOR operator on the decimals 15 and 9, and assigns the

result to the variable

// 15 decimal = 1111 binary

// 9 decimal = 1001 binary

var x:Number = 15 ^ 9;

trace(x);

// 1111 ^ 1001 = 0110

// returns 6 decimal (0110 binary)