NOTE: This site is obsolete. See book draft (in PDF):

The Laws of Cryptography with Java Code.

The code below shows how xor can be used to interchange data elements.

// Xor.java: test xor function ^ for interchanges
public class Xor {

   // main function to try out Base class
   public static void main (String[] args) {
      int a = 123456789, b = -987654321;
      printThem(a, b);
      // interchange a and b
      a = a^b;
      b = a^b;
      a = a^b;
      printThem(a, b);
      a = 234234234; b = -789789789;
      printThem(a, b);
      // interchange a and b
      a ^= b;
      b ^= a;
      a ^= b;
      printThem(a, b);
   } // end of main

   private static void printThem(int a, int b) {
      System.out.println("a: " + a + ", \tb: " + b);
   }
} 
          
/* Output:

a: 123456789,   b: -987654321
a: -987654321,  b: 123456789
a: 234234234,   b: -789789789
a: -789789789,  b: 234234234

*/