and and or return the last expression evaluated; xor always evaluates both sides and then returns the exclusive or of those two expressions (not either of the surrounding expressions) so it's always going to be a boolean value either 1 or ''/0. See perlop

Update: On further reflection I think I see what your expectations for the behavior might be based on and/or's behavior: if A xor B is true return whichever of A or B was true, otherwise return false.

The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.

In reply to Re^3: 'xor' operator is not a sibling to 'or' and 'and'? by Fletch
in thread 'xor' operator is not a sibling to 'or' and 'and'? by rsFalse

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