Question

i have heard from a friend of mine that the best algorithm for swapping is
” (a^=b^=a^=b)”
where a and b are two integers to be swapped.
but when i applied this using c language it resulted in crashing.
can anyone of you fine people explain the possible reason for that?
please suggest the best algorithm for swapping.
thank you!!!!
guys i would like to know the reason for crashing.

Answer 1

this swapping trick is sometimes dangerous, I have seen a a wrong quicksort program using this swap generates wrong results. But a usual swap generates correct program.

Respect to speed, the compiler sometimes generates faster code if we use a tmp variable.

use tmp = a; a = b; b = tmp;