The caret symbol (^
) in some languages is used to represent
exponentiation. However, in Rust, as in many C-like languages, it
represents the bitwise exclusive-or (XOR
) operation. It is
recommended to carefully vet if the caret is being used for XOR or
exponentiation.
The expression 2^32
in Rust evaluates to the number 34, not 2_i32.pow(32)
(or 1 << 32), and such patterns are likely erroneous. It is recommended to use
1 << EXP
(for 2^EXP) where EXP
is the exponent and the base is 2. For other
bases, use the power function from the standard library, such as i32::pow
.
2 ^ 32
// evaluates to 34, but perhaps the intention was to raise 2 to the power of 32
1_u64 << 32;
// or
2_u64.pow(32);