#no-xor-as-exponentiation

#Configuration

import { defineConfig, unicornPlugin } from '@rslint/core';

export default defineConfig([
  unicornPlugin.configs.recommended,
  {
    rules: {
      'unicorn/no-xor-as-exponentiation': 'error',
    },
  },
]);

#Rule Details

In JavaScript, ^ is the bitwise XOR operator, not exponentiation. Developers coming from languages like Lua, Julia, R, or MATLAB, or from math notation, often expect ^ to mean "to the power of", so 2 ^ 32 silently evaluates to 34 instead of 4294967296. The actual exponentiation operator is **.

This rule flags ^ between two decimal integer literals, which is almost always this mistake. Hexadecimal, octal, and binary literals (such as 0xFF ^ 8) and any non-literal operands (such as flags ^ MASK) are ignored, since those are far more likely to be intentional bitwise XOR.

Examples of incorrect code for this rule:

const bytes = 2 ^ 10; // 8, not 1024
const cube = 3 ^ 3; // 0, not 27

Examples of correct code for this rule:

const bytes = 2 ** 10;
const cube = 3 ** 3;

#Original Documentation

• eslint-plugin-unicorn: no-xor-as-exponentiation
• Source code