Swap Integers In Place | Dataford Interview Questions

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure code may need to exchange two integer state values during an update. Implement a function that swaps two integers in place without declaring an explicit temporary variable.

Because Python integers are immutable and passed by object reference, the function should return the two values in swapped order. The restriction applies to the implementation: do not use a third named variable, arithmetic storage variable, or a library swap utility.

Formal Specification

Implement swap_in_place(a, b), where a and b are integers. Return a two-element tuple (b, a), representing the values after the swap. The inputs may be positive, negative, or zero.

Constraints

a and b are integers.
-10^18 <= a, b <= 10^18.
Do not declare an explicit temporary variable.
Use constant auxiliary space.

Function Signature

def swap_in_place(a, b):

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