Go "&^" operator, what does it mean?

Question

I am struggling to understand what the &^ and &^= operators mean in Go. I cannot find an answer either in the documentation (which states it's a bit clear operator, but it does not help me much) or by trials.

In particular, I want to know if there is an equivalent in Python.

Answer 1

These are the "AND NOT" or "bit clear" operators, "useful" for clearing those bits of the left-hand side operand that are set in right-side operand.

I put the "useful" in quotes since all other languages that derive the bitwise operations from C one does this with bitwise AND & and bitwise NOT ~; thus 5 &^ 2 would be just 5 & ~2 in Python; and a &^= 3 of Go would be a &= ~3 in Python.