Swap two variables without using a temporary variable

Not in C#. In native code you might be able to use the triple-XOR swap trick, but not in a high level type-safe language. (Anyway, I've heard that the XOR trick actually ends up being slower than using a temporary variable in many common CPU architectures.)

You should just use a temporary variable. There's no reason you can't use one; it's not like there's a limited supply.

For completeness, here is the binary XOR swap:

int x = 42;
int y = 51236;
x ^= y;
y ^= x;
x ^= y;

This works for all atomic objects/references, as it deals directly with the bytes, but may require an unsafe context to work on decimals or, if you're feeling really twisted, pointers. And it may be slower than a temp variable in some circumstances as well.

<deprecated>

You can do it in 3 lines using basic math - in my example I used multiplication, but simple addition would work also.

float startAngle = 159.9F;
float stopAngle = 355.87F;

startAngle = startAngle * stopAngle;
stopAngle = startAngle / stopAngle;
startAngle = startAngle / stopAngle;

Edit: As noted in the comments, this wouldn't work if y = 0 as it would generate a divide by zero error which I hadn't considered. So the +/- solution alternatively presented would be the best way to go.

</deprecated>

To keep my code immediately comprehensible, I'd be more likely to do something like this. [Always think about the poor guy that's gonna have to maintain your code]:

static bool Swap<T>(ref T x, ref T y)
{
    try
    {
        T t = y;
        y = x;
        x = t;
        return true;
    }
    catch
    {
        return false;
    }
}

And then you can do it in one line of code:

float startAngle = 159.9F
float stopAngle = 355.87F
Swap<float>(ref startAngle, ref stopAngle);

Or...

MyObject obj1 = new MyObject("object1");
MyObject obj2 = new MyObject("object2");
Swap<MyObject>(ref obj1, ref obj2);

Done like dinner...you can now pass in any type of object and switch them around...

Beware of your environment!

For example, this doesn’t seem to work in ECMAscript

y ^= x ^= y ^= x;

But this does

x ^= y ^= x; y ^= x;

My advise? Assume as little as possible.

For binary types you can use this funky trick:

a %= b %= a %= b;

As long as a and b are not the exact same variable (e.g. aliases for the same memory) it works.