swapped

Swapped is the past tense and past participle of the verb swap. The core meaning is to exchange items, positions, or states so that each participant ends up with the other's item or state.

In ordinary speech, people swap seats, shifts, clothes, numbers, or stories. The phrase can be used to indicate bilateral exchange or a change of arrangements. Examples include “We swapped contact information” or “They swapped stories about their trips.”

In computing, swap has several uses. Variable swapping refers to exchanging the values of two variables, often using a temporary placeholder or clever techniques to do so without extra space. Memory management uses swap space or a swap file; the operating system can swap pages between RAM and disk, sometimes described as swapping out and swapping in pages.

In mathematics and algorithms, a swap is a simple operation that exchanges two elements of a sequence or data structure; it is a fundamental primitive in sorting and permutation routines. A transposition is the formal term for swapping two elements.

In finance, a swap is a derivative contract in which counterparties exchange cash flows or other financial instruments. When a swap is completed, the counterparties have effectively swapped the respective streams of payments according to the contract terms.