answer:This is a trick using the exclusive or operator ^ that was used when computers were short on memory. a = (a ^ b) /* a^b, b */ b = (a ^ b) /* a^b, a */ a = (a ^ b) /* b, a */ You can also do it using subtraction for numeric values a = a – b /* a – b, b */ b = b -a /* a-b, a */ a = b – a /* b, a */