8

CHAPTER

Assembly Variables

N ASM 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

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 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 use of the define directive:

section .text
global main ;must be declared for linker (gcc)
main: ;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 following result:

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.

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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:

section .text
global main ;must be declared for linker (ld)
main: ;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 following result:

*********

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 9
CHAPTER

Assembly Constants

T here are several directives provided by NASM that define constants. We have already used the EQU

directive in previous chapters. We will particularly discuss three directives:

 EQU

 %assign

 %define

The EQU Directive

The EQU directive is used for defining constants. The syntax of the EQU directive is as follows:

CONSTANT_NAME EQU expression

For example,

TOTAL_STUDENTS equ 50

You can then use this constant value in your code, like:

mov ecx, TOTAL_STUDENTS

cmp eax, TOTAL_STUDENTS

The operand of an EQU statement can be an expression:

LENGTH equ 20
WIDTH equ 10
AREA equ length * width

Above code segment would define AREA as 200.

Example:
The following example illustrates the use of the EQU directive:

SYS_EXIT equ 1
SYS_WRITE equ 4

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STDIN equ 0
STDOUT equ 1
section .text
global main ;must be declared for using gcc
main: ;tell linker entry point
mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, msg1
mov edx, len1
int 0x80

mov eax, SYS_WRITE

mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, msg2
mov edx, len2
int 0x80

mov eax, SYS_WRITE

mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, msg3
mov edx, len3
int 0x80
mov eax,SYS_EXIT ;system call number (sys_exit)
int 0x80 ;call kernel

section .data
msg1 db 'Hello, programmers!',0xA,0xD
len1 equ $ - msg1
msg2 db 'Welcome to the world of,', 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $ - msg2
msg3 db 'Linux assembly programming! '
len3 equ $- msg3

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

Hello, programmers!
Welcome to the world of,
Linux assembly programming!

The %assign Directive

The %assign directive can be used to define numeric constants like the EQU directive. This directive allows
redefinition. For example, you may define the constant TOTAL as:

%assign TOTAL 10

Later in the code you can redefine it as:

%assign TOTAL 20

This directive is case-sensitive.

The %define Directive

The %define directive allows defining both numeric and string constants. This directive is similar to the #define in
C. For example, you may define the constant PTR as:

%define PTR [EBP+4]

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The above code replaces PTR by [EBP+4].

This directive also allows redefinition and it is case sensitive.

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