how xor(^) operator works here? pls explain.....

Question

c=[1,4,1]
d=0
for j in c:
d=d^j
print(d)

#how come the result: 4 ??

Answer 1

Xor (esclusive or) is a bitwise operator that, to bit level, return true/1 if operands are different else false/0... In numeric context, it apply this at all bits in operands following order (apply to either first bits, to either second bits and so on)... At example:
4^2=
4= 100
2= 010
________
110 = 6

On your problem, you are looping on array and for any item (number) , you do xor with last result (at begin is 0) then:
1st cycle: 1^0= 1 ==> save 1
2nd cycle: 1^4= 5 ==> save 5
3rd cycle= 5^1= 4 ==> save 4

print saved ==> 4