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How to use Excel to calculate bitwise XOR in hexadecimal format?

I have two cells with a string of bits:

1747F6001E00DB2XXXXX28FE5257645C
and
1C6262C8DBF510F655XXXXXA3BDA58AC

I want to XOR the two together so that the result would be something like 0B2594C8C5F5CXXXXX190014698D3CF0.

I know that I need to use a bitwise XOR operation in Excel, as bitwise XOR calculators work online, but they give me the option to choose between hexadecimal and binary input data. BITXOR should work, but it does not work for hexadecimal inputs.

Solution

  • With a formula, Text to Columns Fixed width each character separate (say A1:AF1 and A2:AF2): 

    =DEC2HEX(BITXOR(HEX2DEC(A1),HEX2DEC(A2)))

    copied across to suit. Stitch back together with CONCATENATE if required as a string in a single cell (or copy into Word and Replace all the tabs, ^t, with nothing).

    Unfortunately BITXOR was not introduced until Excel 2011 / Excel 2013.

    SO33031399 example