Logical XOR in JavaScript

By Zach Leatherman | Published: March 23, 2007

Of course there wouldn’t be an XOR function in JavaScript when I needed one. So I googled around and found an implementation at How To Create. But it only took two arguments. So I rolled my own supporting a variable number of arguments. In my personal stuff, I’ve put it into a Math library under the YAHOO namespace, and you can decide if you want to do that on your own.

function xor()
{
	var b = false;
	for( var j = 0; j < arguments.length; j++ )
	{
		if( arguments[ j ] && !b ) b = true;
		else if( arguments[ j ] && b ) return false;
	}
	return b;
};

Usage:

xor( false, true ); // true
xor( true, true ); // false
xor( false, false, true, true, true, false, true, false ); // false
xor( false, false, false, true, false, false, false, false ); // true
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  • About the Author

    Zach Leatherman is a Professional Front End Engineer. He loves building for the web, and has been contributing to the community through his blog since February 2007. Despite his propensity for software, he has a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering and is currently on the User Experience Team at Union Pacific Railroad. The views expressed on this website do not represent the views of his employer.

    He enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife Traci and their two Great Danes, Roxie and Ella. They also have a cat, a rabbit, goldfish, and one or more tarantulas. Read more »