Assembly - Variables

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NASM provides various define directives for reserving storage space for variables. The define assembler directive is used for allocation of storage space. It can be used to reserve as well as initialize one or more bytes.

Allocating Storage Space for Initialized Data

The syntax for storage allocation statement for initialized data is −

[variable-name]    define-directive    initial-value   [,initial-value]...

Where, variable-name is the identifier for each storage space. The assembler associates an offset value for each variable name defined in the data segment.

There are five basic forms of the define directive −

Directive Purpose Storage Space
DB Define Byte allocates 1 byte
DW Define Word allocates 2 bytes
DD Define Doubleword allocates 4 bytes
DQ Define Quadword allocates 8 bytes
DT Define Ten Bytes allocates 10 bytes

Following are some examples of using define directives −

choice		DB	'y'
number		DW	12345
neg_number	DW	-12345
big_number	DQ	123456789
real_number1	DD	1.234
real_number2	DQ	123.456

Please note that −

  • Each byte of character is stored as its ASCII value in hexadecimal.

  • Each decimal value is automatically converted to its 16-bit binary equivalent and stored as a hexadecimal number.

  • Processor uses the little-endian byte ordering.

  • Negative numbers are converted to its 2's complement representation.

  • Short and long floating-point numbers are represented using 32 or 64 bits, respectively.

The following program shows the use of define directive −

Live Demo 
section .text
   global _start          ;must be declared for linker (gcc)
	
_start:                   ;tell linker entry point
   mov	edx,1		  ;message length
   mov	ecx,choice        ;message to write
   mov	ebx,1		  ;file descriptor (stdout)
   mov	eax,4		  ;system call number (sys_write)
   int	0x80		  ;call kernel

   mov	eax,1		  ;system call number (sys_exit)
   int	0x80		  ;call kernel

section .data
choice DB 'y'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

y

Allocating Storage Space for Uninitialized Data

The reserve directives are used for reserving space for uninitialized data. The reserve directives take a single operand that specifies the number of units of space to be reserved. Each define directive has a related reserve directive.

There are five basic forms of the reserve directive −

Directive Purpose
RESB Reserve a Byte
RESW Reserve a Word
RESD Reserve a Doubleword
RESQ Reserve a Quadword
REST Reserve a Ten Bytes

Multiple Definitions

You can have multiple data definition statements in a program. For example −

choice	  DB 	'Y' 		 ;ASCII of y = 79H
number1	  DW 	12345 	 ;12345D = 3039H
number2    DD  12345679  ;123456789D = 75BCD15H

The assembler allocates contiguous memory for multiple variable definitions.

Multiple Initializations

The TIMES directive allows multiple initializations to the same value. For example, an array named marks of size 9 can be defined and initialized to zero using the following statement −

marks  TIMES  9  DW  0

The TIMES directive is useful in defining arrays and tables. The following program displays 9 asterisks on the screen −

Live Demo 
section	.text
   global _start        ;must be declared for linker (ld)
	
_start:                 ;tell linker entry point
   mov	edx,9		;message length
   mov	ecx, stars	;message to write
   mov	ebx,1		;file descriptor (stdout)
   mov	eax,4		;system call number (sys_write)
   int	0x80		;call kernel

   mov	eax,1		;system call number (sys_exit)
   int	0x80		;call kernel

section	.data
stars   times 9 db '*'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

*********
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