BITXOR in Collabora Office: Locate Changed Flags and Separate Additions from Removals

• Introduced: the original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the reviewed sources.
• Availability: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help.
• Platform scope: online and mobile deployment support is not inferred from the desktop documentation.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Function-specific documentation and independent controls; no native Collabora execution.

=BITXOR(Number1; Number2)

The Collabora reference describes positive integers below 2^48, or 281474976710656. The worked arguments remain strictly positive and small.

The section does not explicitly establish zero-input acceptance, text or Boolean coercion, fractional behavior or exact native errors. Equal positive masks can nevertheless produce zero as an output. Input eligibility and possible output values are different questions.

The word “exclusive” means a bit is set when exactly one input contains it. This is a position-by-position numeric operation, distinct from evaluating general logical conditions with a Boolean XOR function.

Define fictional weights summary=1, detail=2, charts=4, archive=8 and checksum=16. Enter this table in A1:B4:

In C2 put =BITXOR(A2;B2) and fill down. Expected results are 14, 0 and 10.

The first comparison is binary 11011 versus 10101. Detail, charts and archive changed; summary and checksum did not. Their differing weights total 2+4+8=14.

Put weights 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 in E2:E6. In F2 use =BITAND($C$2;E2)>0 and fill down. Expected results are FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE and FALSE. This extraction uses the positive difference mask 14 from the first row.

The identical second pair produces zero, meaning no differing bits. This guide does not pass that zero back into another bit function because the cited input wording does not explicitly cover that case.

For the first old/new pair, C2 contains 14. Evaluate:

=BITAND(C2;B2)
=BITAND(C2;A2)

The first output is 4, the changed bit present in the new mask. The second is 10, the changed bits present in the old mask. Charts was added; detail and archive were removed.

The numeric subtraction 21−27 is −6. It is not the changed-bit mask 14 and cannot tell you which options were enabled or disabled. Bitwise comparison preserves the separate positions.

For the third pair, 3 to 9, the difference mask is 10. Its intersection with new mask 9 is 8, while its intersection with old mask 3 is 2: archive was added and detail removed.

Enter masks 1, 5, 18 and 22 in H2:H5. Charts has weight 4. In I2 enter =BITXOR(H2;4) and fill down.

Expected masks are 5, 1, 22 and 18. A missing chart bit becomes selected; a selected chart bit becomes absent.

In J2 enter =BITXOR(I2;4) and fill down. The original sequence 1, 5, 18 and 22 returns. Each input remains positive in this fixture, so the demonstration stays within the documented wording.

For a repeatable “enable charts” operation, BITOR instead gives 5, 5, 22 and 22. Reapplying an enable operation should not silently undo it.

For the first pair:

=BITXOR(27;14)

Expected result: 21, reconstructing the new mask from the old mask and its difference. Similarly, =BITXOR(3;10) gives 9.

These are algebraic consistency checks for known positive values. They do not establish authorization, encryption or data integrity. Retain the original old and new columns when an audit trail matters.

The official example =BITXOR(6;10) returns 12, from 0110 XOR 1010 =1100. Equal positive arguments such as =BITXOR(12;12) yield the independently expected zero output.

A numeric difference mask of 14 does not mean fourteen options changed; it encodes the three weights 8, 4 and 2. Use BITAND with the declared weight table to interpret each position.

Zero arguments, coercion, oversized inputs, fractional values and native error displays remain unverified. The deliberately bounded examples demonstrate the bitwise logic without importing another product’s broader input rules.

• Collabora Office 26.04: BITXOR.
• Editorial testing standards.

Complete function-specific documentation reviewed. Outputs are independently calculated positional, equality or arithmetic models, not captured native application results. Formulas use English names and semicolon separators; optional-argument brackets describe syntax and are not typed into a working formula.