Question

I tried to implement XOR swap in python.

x,y= 10,20

x,y,x = x^y,x^y,x^y

print('%s , %s'%(x,y))

OUTPUT:

30 , 30

I am not new to python but I am unable to explain this output. It should have been 20,10.

What is going on under the hood?

Answer 1

First, a tuple is created consisting of x^y, x^y and x^y. Then the tuple is unpacked into x, y, and x, causing both to be bound to the result of x^y.

Save yourself the headache and do it the Pythonic way:

x, y = y, x