Assembly Programming

Language For Beginners :

Learn Assembly Programming
language
(Language of Book : English)
Author
Kavishankar Panchtilak
(Professional Blogger, Digital Entrepreneur)
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 Table Of Contents

Assembly - Introduction
What is Assembly Language?
Advantages of Assembly Language
Basic Features of PC Hardware
Binary Number System
Hexadecimal Number System
Binary Arithmetic
Addressing Data in Memory
Assembly - Environment Setup
Local Environment Setup
Installing NASM
Assembly - Basic Syntax
The data Section
The bss Section
The text section
Comments
Assembly Language Statements
Syntax of Assembly Language Statements
The Hello World Program in Assembly
Compiling and Linking an Assembly Program in NASM
Assembly - Memory Segments
Memory Segments
Assembly - Registers
Processor Registers
Data Registers
 Pointer Registers
Index Registers
Control Registers
Segment Registers
Example
Assembly - System Calls
Linux System Calls
Example
Assembly - Addressing Modes
Register Addressing
Immediate Addressing
Direct Memory Addressing
Direct-Offset Addressing
Indirect Memory Addressing
The MOV Instruction
Syntax
Example
Assembly - Variables
Allocating Storage Space for Initialized Data
Allocating Storage Space for Uninitialized Data
Multiple Definitions
Multiple Initializations
Assembly - Constants
The EQU Directive
Example
The %assign Directive
The %define Directive
Assembly - Arithmetic Instructions
The INC Instruction
 Syntax
Example
The DEC Instruction
Syntax
Example
The ADD and SUB Instructions
Syntax
Example
The MUL/IMUL Instruction
Syntax
Example
Example
The DIV/IDIV Instructions
Syntax
Example
Assembly - Logical Instructions
The AND Instruction
Example
The OR Instruction
Example
The XOR Instruction
The TEST Instruction
The NOT Instruction
Assembly - Conditions
CMP Instruction
Syntax
Example
Unconditional Jump
Syntax
 Example
Conditional Jump
Example
Assembly - Loops
Example
Assembly - Numbers
ASCII Representation
BCD Representation
Example
Assembly - Strings
String Instructions
Repetition Prefixes
Assembly - Arrays
Example
Assembly - Procedures
Syntax
Example
Stacks Data Structure
Example
Assembly - Recursion
Assembly - Macros
Example
Assembly - File Management
File Descriptor
File Pointer
File Handling System Calls
Creating and Opening a File
Opening an Existing File
Reading from a File
 Writing to a File
Closing a File
Updating a File
Example
Assembly - Memory Management
Example

Assembly - Introduction
What is Assembly Language?
Each personal computer has a microprocessor that manages
the computer's arithmetical, logical, and control activities.
Each family of processors has its own set of instructions for
handling various operations such as getting input from the
keyboard, displaying information on screen and performing
various other jobs. These sets of instructions are called
'machine language instructions'.
A processor understands only machine language
instructions, which are strings of 1's and 0's. However,
machine language is too obscure and complex for use in
software development. So, the low-level assembly language
is designed for a specific family of processors that
represents various instructions in symbolic code and a more
understandable form.

Advantages of Assembly Language

Having an understanding of assembly language makes one
aware of −
1. How programs interface with OS, processor, and
BIOS;
 2. How data is represented in memory and other
external devices;
3. How the processor accesses and executes
instruction;
4. How instructions access and process data;
5. How a program accesses external devices.

Other advantages of using assembly language are −

1. It requires less memory and execution time;
2. It allows hardware-specific complex jobs in an
easier way;
3. It is suitable for time-critical jobs;
4. It is most suitable for writing interrupt service
routines and other memory resident programs.

Basic Features of PC Hardware

The main internal hardware of a PC consists of processor,
memory, and registers. Registers are processor components
that hold data and address. To execute a program, the
system copies it from the external device into the internal
memory. The processor executes the program instructions.
The fundamental unit of computer storage is a bit; it could
be ON (1) or OFF (0) and a group of 8 related bits makes a
byte on most of the modern computers.
So, the parity bit is used to make the number of bits in a
byte odd. If the parity is even, the system assumes that
there had been a parity error (though rare), which might
have been caused due to hardware fault or electrical
disturbance.
The processor supports the following data sizes −
1. Word: a 2-byte data item
2. Doubleword: a 4-byte (32 bit) data item
 3. Quadword: an 8-byte (64 bit) data item
4. Paragraph: a 16-byte (128 bit) area
5. Kilobyte: 1024 bytes
6. Megabyte: 1,048,576 bytes

Binary Number System

Every number system uses positional notation, i.e., each
position in which a digit is written has a different positional
value. Each position is the power of the base, which is 2 for
the binary number system, and these powers begin at 0 and
increase by 1.
The following table shows the positional values for an 8-bit
binary number, where all bits are set ON.

Bit value 1 1 1 1 1111

Position value as a power of base 1 6 3 1 8421

2 2 4 2 6
8

Bit number 7 6 5 4 3210

The value of a binary number is based on the presence of 1

bits and their positional value. So, the value of a given
binary number is −
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 +16 + 32 + 64 + 128 = 255
which is the same as 28 - 1.

Hexadecimal Number System

Hexadecimal number system uses base 16. The digits in this
system range from 0 to 15. By convention, the letters A
through F are used to represent the hexadecimal digits
corresponding to decimal values 10 through 15.
Hexadecimal numbers in computing are used for
abbreviating lengthy binary representations. Basically, a
hexadecimal number system represents binary data by
dividing each byte in half and expressing the value of each
half-byte. The following table provides the decimal, binary,
and hexadecimal equivalents −

Decimal Binary Hexadecimal

number representation representation

0 0 0

1 1 1

2 10 2

3 11 3

4 100 4

5 101 5

6 110 6

7 111 7

8 1000 8

9 1001 9

10 1010 A

11 1011 B

12 1100 C

13 1101 D
 14 1110 E

15 1111 F

To convert a binary number to its hexadecimal equivalent,

break it into groups of 4 consecutive groups each, starting
from the right, and write those groups over the
corresponding digits of the hexadecimal number.
Example − Binary number 1000 1100 1101 0001 is
equivalent to hexadecimal - 8CD1
To convert a hexadecimal number to binary, just write each
hexadecimal digit into its 4-digit binary equivalent.
Example − Hexadecimal number FAD8 is equivalent to
binary - 1111 1010 1101 1000

Binary Arithmetic
The following table illustrates four simple rules for binary
addition −

(i) (ii (iii (iv)

) )

0 1 1 1

+ + +1 +1
0 0

= = =1 =1
0 1 0 1

Rules (iii) and (iv) show a carry of a 1-bit into the next left
position.
Example

Decima Binary
l

60 0011110
0

+42 0010101
0

102 0110011
0

A negative binary value is expressed in two's complement

notation. According to this rule, to convert a binary number
to its negative value is to reverse its bit values and add 1.
Example

Number 53 0011010
1

Reverse the 1100101

bits 0

Add 1 0000000
1

Number -53 1100101

1

To subtract one value from another, convert the number

being subtracted to two's complement format and add the
numbers.
Example
Subtract 42 from 53

Number 53 0011010
1

Number 42 0010101
0

Reverse the bits of 1101010

42 1

Add 1 0000000
1

Number -42 1101011

0

53 - 42 = 11 0000101
1

Overflow of the last 1 bit is lost.

Addressing Data in Memory

The process through which the processor controls the
execution of instructions is referred to as the fetch-
decode-execute cycle or the execution cycle. It consists
of three continuous steps −
1. Fetching the instruction from memory
2. Decoding or identifying the instruction
3. Executing the instruction

The processor may access one or more bytes of memory at

a time. Let us consider a hexadecimal number 0725H. This
number will require two bytes of memory. The high-order
byte or most significant byte is 07 and the low-order byte is
25.
The processor stores data in reverse-byte sequence, i.e., a
low-order byte is stored in a low memory address and a
high-order byte in high memory address. So, if the processor
brings the value 0725H from register to memory, it will
transfer 25 first to the lower memory address and 07 to the
next memory address.

x: memory address
When the processor gets the numeric data from memory to
register, it again reverses the bytes. There are two kinds of
memory addresses −
1. Absolute address - a direct reference of specific
location.
2. Segment address (or offset) - starting address of a
memory segment with the offset value.

Assembly - Environment
Setup
Local Environment Setup
Assembly language is dependent upon the instruction set
and the architecture of the processor. In this tutorial, we
focus on Intel-32 processors like Pentium. To follow this
tutorial, you will need −
1. An IBM PC or any equivalent compatible computer
2. A copy of Linux operating system
3. A copy of NASM assembler program
There are many good assembler programs, such as −
1. Microsoft Assembler (MASM)
2. Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM)
3. The GNU assembler (GAS)

We will use the NASM assembler, as it is −

1. Free. You can download it from various web sources.
2. Well documented and you will get lots of
information on net.
3. Could be used on both Linux and Windows.

Installing NASM
If you select "Development Tools" while installing Linux, you
may get NASM installed along with the Linux operating
system and you do not need to download and install it
separately. For checking whether you already have NASM
installed, take the following steps −
1. Open a Linux terminal.
2. Type whereis nasm and press ENTER.
3. If it is already installed, then a line like, nasm:
/usr/bin/nasm appears. Otherwise, you will see just
nasm:, then you need to install NASM.

To install NASM, take the following steps −

1. Check The netwide assembler (NASM) website for
the latest version.
2. Download the Linux source archive nasm-
X.XX.ta.gz , where X.XX is the NASM version
number in the archive.
3. Unpack the archive into a directory which creates a
subdirectory nasm-X. XX .
4. cd to nasm-X.XX and type ./configure. This shell
script will find the best C compiler to use and set up
 Makefiles accordingly.
5. Type make to build the nasm and ndisasm binaries.
6. Type make install to install nasm and ndisasm in
/usr/local/bin and to install the man pages.

This should install NASM on your system. Alternatively, you

can use an RPM distribution for the Fedora Linux. This
version is simpler to install, just double-click the RPM file.
Print Page

Assembly - Basic Syntax

An assembly program can be divided into three sections −
1. The data section,
2. The bss section, and
3. The text section.

The data Section

The data section is used for declaring initialized data or
constants. This data does not change at runtime. You can
declare various constant values, file names, or buffer size,
etc., in this section.
The syntax for declaring data section is −
section.data

The bss Section

The bss section is used for declaring variables. The syntax
for declaring bss section is −
section.bss
The text section
The text section is used for keeping the actual code. This
section must begin with the declaration global _start,
which tells the kernel where the program execution begins.
The syntax for declaring text section is −
section.text
global _start
_start:

Comments
Assembly language comment begins with a semicolon (;). It
may contain any printable character including blank. It can
appear on a line by itself, like −
; This program displays a message on screen

or, on the same line along with an instruction, like −

add eax, ebx ; adds ebx to eax

Assembly Language Statements

Assembly language programs consist of three types of
statements −
1. Executable instructions or instructions,
2. Assembler directives or pseudo-ops, and
3. Macros.

The executable instructions or simply instructions tell

the processor what to do. Each instruction consists of an
operation code (opcode). Each executable instruction
generates one machine language instruction.
The assembler directives or pseudo-ops tell the
assembler about the various aspects of the assembly
process. These are non-executable and do not generate
machine language instructions.
Macros are basically a text substitution mechanism.

Syntax of Assembly Language Statements

Assembly language statements are entered one statement
per line. Each statement follows the following format −
[label] mnemonic [operands] [;comment]

The fields in the square brackets are optional. A basic

instruction has two parts, the first one is the name of the
instruction (or the mnemonic), which is to be executed, and
the second are the operands or the parameters of the
command.
Following are some examples of typical assembly language
statements −
INC COUNT ; Increment the memory variable COUNT
MOV TOTAL, 48 ; Transfer the value 48 in the
; memory variable TOTAL
ADD AH, BH ; Add the content of the
; BH register into the AH register
AND MASK1, 128 ; Perform AND operation on the
; variable MASK1 and 128
ADD MARKS, 10 ; Add 10 to the variable MARKS
MOV AL, 10 ; Transfer the value 10 to the AL register

The Hello World Program in Assembly

The following assembly language code displays the string
'Hello World' on the screen −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for linker (ld)
_start:​ ;tells linker entry point
mov ​edx,len ;message length
mov ​ecx,msg ;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
msg db 'Hello, world!', 0xa ;string to be printed
len equ $ - msg ;length of the string
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Hello, world!

Compiling and Linking an Assembly

Program in NASM
Make sure you have set the path of nasm and ld binaries in
your PATH environment variable. Now, take the following
steps for compiling and linking the above program −
1. Type the above code using a text editor and save it
as hello.asm.
2. Make sure that you are in the same directory as
where you saved hello.asm.
3. To assemble the program, type nasm -f elf
hello.asm
 4. If there is any error, you will be prompted about
that at this stage. Otherwise, an object file of your
program named hello.o will be created.
5. To link the object file and create an executable file
named hello, type ld -m elf_i386 -s -o hello
hello.o
6. Execute the program by typing ./hello

If you have done everything correctly, it will display 'Hello,

world!' on the screen.

Assembly - Memory
Segments
We have already discussed the three sections of an
assembly program. These sections represent various
memory segments as well.
Interestingly, if you replace the section keyword with
segment, you will get the same result. Try the following
code −
segment .text ​ ;code segment
global _start ;must be declared for linker
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov edx,len ​ ;message length
mov ecx,msg ;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
segment .data ;data segment
msg ​db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string
len ​equ ​$ - msg ;length of our dear string
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Hello, world!

Memory Segments
A segmented memory model divides the system memory
into groups of independent segments referenced by pointers
located in the segment registers. Each segment is used to
contain a specific type of data. One segment is used to
contain instruction codes, another segment stores the data
elements, and a third segment keeps the program stack.
In the light of the above discussion, we can specify various
memory segments as −
1. Data segment − It is represented by .data section
and the .bss. The .data section is used to declare
the memory region, where data elements are stored
for the program. This section cannot be expanded
after the data elements are declared, and it remains
static throughout the program.
The .bss section is also a static memory section
that contains buffers for data to be declared later in
the program. This buffer memory is zero-filled.
2. Code segment − It is represented by .text
section. This defines an area in memory that stores
the instruction codes. This is also a fixed area.
3. Stack − This segment contains data values passed
to functions and procedures within the program.

Assembly - Registers
Processor operations mostly involve processing data. This
data can be stored in memory and accessed from thereon.
However, reading data from and storing data into memory
slows down the processor, as it involves complicated
processes of sending the data request across the control
bus and into the memory storage unit and getting the data
through the same channel.
To speed up the processor operations, the processor
includes some internal memory storage locations, called
registers.
The registers store data elements for processing without
having to access the memory. A limited number of registers
are built into the processor chip.

Processor Registers
There are ten 32-bit and six 16-bit processor registers in IA-
32 architecture. The registers are grouped into three
categories −
1. General registers,
2. Control registers, and
3. Segment registers.

The general registers are further divided into the following

groups −
1. Data registers,
2. Pointer registers, and
3. Index registers.

Data Registers
Four 32-bit data registers are used for arithmetic, logical,
and other operations. These 32-bit registers can be used in
three ways −
 1. As complete 32-bit data registers: EAX, EBX, ECX,
EDX.
2. Lower halves of the 32-bit registers can be used as
four 16-bit data registers: AX, BX, CX and DX.
3. Lower and higher halves of the above-mentioned
four 16-bit registers can be used as eight 8-bit data
registers: AH, AL, BH, BL, CH, CL, DH, and DL.

Some of these data registers have specific use in

arithmetical operations.
AX is the primary accumulator; it is used in input/output
and most arithmetic instructions. For example, in
multiplication operation, one operand is stored in EAX or AX
or AL register according to the size of the operand.
BX is known as the base register, as it could be used in
indexed addressing.
CX is known as the count register, as the ECX, CX
registers store the loop count in iterative operations.
DX is known as the data register. It is also used in
input/output operations. It is also used with AX register
along with DX for multiply and divide operations involving
large values.

Pointer Registers
The pointer registers are 32-bit EIP, ESP, and EBP registers
and corresponding 16-bit right portions IP, SP, and BP. There
are three categories of pointer registers −
1. Instruction Pointer (IP) − The 16-bit IP register
stores the offset address of the next instruction to
be executed. IP in association with the CS register
(as CS:IP) gives the complete address of the current
instruction in the code segment.
2. Stack Pointer (SP) − The 16-bit SP register
provides the offset value within the program stack.
SP in association with the SS register (SS:SP) refers
to be current position of data or address within the
program stack.
3. Base Pointer (BP) − The 16-bit BP register mainly
helps in referencing the parameter variables passed
to a subroutine. The address in SS register is
combined with the offset in BP to get the location of
the parameter. BP can also be combined with DI
and SI as base register for special addressing.

Index Registers
The 32-bit index registers, ESI and EDI, and their 16-bit
rightmost portions. SI and DI, are used for indexed
addressing and sometimes used in addition and subtraction.
There are two sets of index pointers −
1. Source Index (SI) − It is used as source index for
string operations.
2. Destination Index (DI) − It is used as destination
index for string operations.
Control Registers
The 32-bit instruction pointer register and the 32-bit flags
register combined are considered as the control registers.
Many instructions involve comparisons and mathematical
calculations and change the status of the flags and some
other conditional instructions test the value of these status
flags to take the control flow to other location.
The common flag bits are:
1. Overflow Flag (OF) − It indicates the overflow of
a high-order bit (leftmost bit) of data after a signed
arithmetic operation.
2. Direction Flag (DF) − It determines left or right
direction for moving or comparing string data.
When the DF value is 0, the string operation takes
left-to-right direction and when the value is set to 1,
the string operation takes right-to-left direction.
3. Interrupt Flag (IF) − It determines whether the
external interrupts like keyboard entry, etc., are to
be ignored or processed. It disables the external
interrupt when the value is 0 and enables interrupts
when set to 1.
4. Trap Flag (TF) − It allows setting the operation of
the processor in single-step mode. The DEBUG
program we used sets the trap flag, so we could
step through the execution one instruction at a
time.
 5. Sign Flag (SF) − It shows the sign of the result of
an arithmetic operation. This flag is set according to
the sign of a data item following the arithmetic
operation. The sign is indicated by the high-order of
leftmost bit. A positive result clears the value of SF
to 0 and negative result sets it to 1.
6. Zero Flag (ZF) − It indicates the result of an
arithmetic or comparison operation. A nonzero
result clears the zero flag to 0, and a zero result
sets it to 1.
7. Auxiliary Carry Flag (AF) − It contains the carry
from bit 3 to bit 4 following an arithmetic operation;
used for specialized arithmetic. The AF is set when
a 1-byte arithmetic operation causes a carry from
bit 3 into bit 4.
8. Parity Flag (PF) − It indicates the total number of
1-bits in the result obtained from an arithmetic
operation. An even number of 1-bits clears the
parity flag to 0 and an odd number of 1-bits sets
the parity flag to 1.
9. Carry Flag (CF) − It contains the carry of 0 or 1
from a high-order bit (leftmost) after an arithmetic
operation. It also stores the contents of last bit of a
shift or rotate operation.

The following table indicates the position of flag bits in the

16-bit Flags register:

Flag: O D I TSZ A P C

Bit 1 1 1 1 1 1 9876543210
no: 5 4 3 2 1 0

Segment Registers
Segments are specific areas defined in a program for
containing data, code and stack. There are three main
segments −
1. Code Segment − It contains all the instructions to
be executed. A 16-bit Code Segment register or CS
register stores the starting address of the code
segment.
2. Data Segment − It contains data, constants and
work areas. A 16-bit Data Segment register or DS
register stores the starting address of the data
segment.
3. Stack Segment − It contains data and return
addresses of procedures or subroutines. It is
implemented as a 'stack' data structure. The Stack
Segment register or SS register stores the starting
address of the stack.

Apart from the DS, CS and SS registers, there are other

extra segment registers - ES (extra segment), FS and GS,
which provide additional segments for storing data.
In assembly programming, a program needs to access the
memory locations. All memory locations within a segment
are relative to the starting address of the segment. A
segment begins in an address evenly divisible by 16 or
hexadecimal 10. So, the rightmost hex digit in all such
memory addresses is 0, which is not generally stored in the
segment registers.
The segment registers stores the starting addresses of a
segment. To get the exact location of data or instruction
within a segment, an offset value (or displacement) is
required. To reference any memory location in a segment,
the processor combines the segment address in the
segment register with the offset value of the location.
Example
Look at the following simple program to understand the use
of registers in assembly programming. This program
displays 9 stars on the screen along with a simple message
−
section ​.text
global _start ​;must be declared for linker (gcc)
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov ​edx,len ;message length
mov ​ecx,msg ;message to write
mov ​ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ;call kernel
mov ​edx,9 ;message length
mov ​ecx,s2 ;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
msg db 'Displaying 9 stars',0xa ;a message
len equ $ - msg ;length of message
s2 times 9 db '*'
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Displaying 9 stars
*********

Assembly - System Calls

System calls are APIs for the interface between the user
space and the kernel space. We have already used the
system calls. sys_write and sys_exit, for writing into the
screen and exiting from the program, respectively.

Linux System Calls

You can make use of Linux system calls in your assembly
programs. You need to take the following steps for using
Linux system calls in your program −
1. Put the system call number in the EAX register.
2. Store the arguments to the system call in the
registers EBX, ECX, etc.
3. Call the relevant interrupt (80h).
4. The result is usually returned in the EAX register.

There are six registers that store the arguments of the

system call used. These are the EBX, ECX, EDX, ESI, EDI,
and EBP. These registers take the consecutive arguments,
starting with the EBX register. If there are more than six
arguments, then the memory location of the first argument
is stored in the EBX register.
The following code snippet shows the use of the system call
sys_exit −
mov ​eax,1 ​ ;​ system call number (sys_exit)
int ​0x80 ​ ​; call kernel
The following code snippet shows the use of the system call
sys_write −
mov ​ dx,4 ​
e ​; message length
mov ​ecx,msg ​ ​; message to write
mov ​ebx,1 ​ ​; file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​ ​; system call number (sys_write)
int ​0x80 ​ ​; call kernel
All the syscalls are listed in /usr/include/asm/unistd.h,
together with their numbers (the value to put in EAX before
you call int 80h).
The following table shows some of the system calls used in
this tutorial −

%e Name %ebx %ecx %e %e %e

ax dx sx di

1 sys_exi int - - - -
t

2 sys_for struct - - - -
k pt_regs

3 sys_rea unsigned char * size - -

d int _t

4 sys_wri unsigned const size - -

te int char * _t

5 sys_op const char int int - -

en *

6 sys_clo unsigned - - - -
se int

Example
The following example reads a number from the keyboard
and displays it on the screen −
section .data ;Data segment
userMsg db 'Please enter a number: ' ;Ask the user to
enter a number
lenUserMsg equ $-userMsg ;The length of the
message
 dispMsg db 'You have entered: '
lenDispMsg equ $-dispMsg
section .bss ;Uninitialized data
num resb 5
section .text ;Code Segment
global _start
_start: ;User prompt
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, userMsg
mov edx, lenUserMsg
int 80h
;Read and store the user input
mov eax, 3
mov ebx, 2
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 5 ;5 bytes (numeric, 1 for sign) of that
information
int 80h
;Output the message 'The entered number is: '
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, dispMsg
mov edx, lenDispMsg
int 80h
;Output the number entered
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 5
int 80h

; Exit code
mov eax, 1
 mov ebx, 0
int 80h
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Please enter a number:
1234
You have entered:1234

Assembly - Addressing
Modes
Most assembly language instructions require operands to be
processed. An operand address provides the location, where
the data to be processed is stored. Some instructions do not
require an operand, whereas some other instructions may
require one, two, or three operands.
When an instruction requires two operands, the first
operand is generally the destination, which contains data in
a register or memory location and the second operand is the
source. Source contains either the data to be delivered
(immediate addressing) or the address (in register or
memory) of the data. Generally, the source data remains
unaltered after the operation.
The three basic modes of addressing are −
1. Register addressing
2. Immediate addressing
3. Memory addressing

Register Addressing
In this addressing mode, a register contains the operand.
Depending upon the instruction, the register may be the
first operand, the second operand or both.
For example,
MOV DX, TAX_RATE ; Register in first operand
MOV COUNT, CX ​ ; Register in second operand
MOV EAX, EBX ​ ; Both the operands are in registers
As processing data between registers does not involve
memory, it provides fastest processing of data.

Immediate Addressing
An immediate operand has a constant value or an
expression. When an instruction with two operands uses
immediate addressing, the first operand may be a register
or memory location, and the second operand is an
immediate constant. The first operand defines the length of
the data.
For example,
BYTE_VALUE DB 150 ; A byte value is defined
WORD_VALUE DW 300 ; A word value is defined
ADD BYTE_VALUE, 65 ; An immediate operand 65 is added
MOV AX, 45H ; Immediate constant 45H is
transferred to AX

Direct Memory Addressing

When operands are specified in memory addressing mode,
direct access to main memory, usually to the data segment,
is required. This way of addressing results in slower
processing of data. To locate the exact location of data in
memory, we need the segment start address, which is
typically found in the DS register and an offset value. This
offset value is also called effective address.
In direct addressing mode, the offset value is specified
directly as part of the instruction, usually indicated by the
variable name. The assembler calculates the offset value
and maintains a symbol table, which stores the offset values
of all the variables used in the program.
In direct memory addressing, one of the operands refers to
a memory location and the other operand references a
register.
For example,
ADD ​BYTE_VALUE, DL ​; Adds the register in the memory
location
MOV ​BX, WORD_VALUE​; Operand from the memory is added
to register

Direct-Offset Addressing
This addressing mode uses the arithmetic operators to
modify an address. For example, look at the following
definitions that define tables of data −
BYTE_TABLE DB 14, 15, 22, 45 ; Tables of bytes
WORD_TABLE DW 134, 345, 564, 123 ; Tables of words
The following operations access data from the tables in the
memory into registers −
MOV CL, BYTE_TABLE[2] ;​ Gets the 3rd element of the
BYTE_TABLE
MOV CL, BYTE_TABLE + 2 ​; Gets the 3rd element of the
BYTE_TABLE
MOV CX, WORD_TABLE[3] ​; Gets the 4th element of the
WORD_TABLE
MOV CX, WORD_TABLE + 3 ​; Gets the 4th element of the
WORD_TABLE

Indirect Memory Addressing

This addressing mode utilizes the computer's ability of
Segment:Offset addressing. Generally, the base registers
EBX, EBP (or BX, BP) and the index registers (DI, SI), coded
within square brackets for memory references, are used for
this purpose.
Indirect addressing is generally used for variables
containing several elements like, arrays. Starting address of
the array is stored in, say, the EBX register.
The following code snippet shows how to access different
elements of the variable.
MY_TABLE TIMES 10 DW 0 ; Allocates 10 words (2 bytes)
each initialized to 0
MOV EBX, [MY_TABLE] ; Effective Address of MY_TABLE in
EBX
MOV [EBX], 110 ; MY_TABLE[0] = 110
ADD EBX, 2 ; EBX = EBX +2
MOV [EBX], 123 ; MY_TABLE[1] = 123

The MOV Instruction

We have already used the MOV instruction that is used for
moving data from one storage space to another. The MOV
instruction takes two operands.

Syntax
The syntax of the MOV instruction is −
MOV destination, source

The MOV instruction may have one of the following five

forms −
MOV register, register
MOV register, immediate
MOV memory, immediate
MOV register, memory
MOV memory, register
Please note that −
1. Both the operands in MOV operation should be of
same size
2. The value of source operand remains unchanged

The MOV instruction causes ambiguity at times. For

example, look at the statements −
MOV EBX, [MY_TABLE] ; Effective Address of MY_TABLE in
EBX
MOV [EBX], 110 ​ ; MY_TABLE[0] = 110
It is not clear whether you want to move a byte equivalent
or word equivalent of the number 110. In such cases, it is
wise to use a type specifier.
Following table shows some of the common type specifiers
−

Type Bytes
Specifier addressed

BYTE 1

WORD 2

DWORD 4

QWORD 8

TBYTE 10

Example
The following program illustrates some of the concepts
discussed above. It stores a name 'Zara Ali' in the data
section of the memory, then changes its value to another
name 'Nuha Ali' programmatically and displays both the
names.
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for linker (ld)
_start: ;tell linker entry point
;writing the name 'Zara Ali'
mov ​edx,9 ;message length
mov ​ecx, name ;message to write
mov ​ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ;call kernel
mov ​[name], dword 'Nuha' ; Changed the name to
Nuha Ali
;writing the name 'Nuha Ali'
mov ​edx,8 ;message length
mov ​ecx,name ;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
name db 'Zara Ali '
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Zara Ali Nuha Ali

Assembly - Variables
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 −

Directi Purpose Storage Space

ve

DB Define Byte allocates 1 byte

DW Define Word allocates 2

bytes

DD Define allocates 4
Doubleword 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 1 ​ 23456789
real_number1 ​DD ​1.234
real_number2 ​DQ ​123.456
Please note that −
1. Each byte of character is stored as its ASCII value in
hexadecimal.
2. Each decimal value is automatically converted to its
16-bit binary equivalent and stored as a
hexadecimal number.
3. Processor uses the little-endian byte ordering.
4. Negative numbers are converted to its 2's
complement representation.
5. Short and long floating-point numbers are
represented using 32 or 64 bits, respectively.

The following program shows the use of define directive −

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 −

Directiv Purpose
e

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 −
*********

Assembly - Constants
There 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 −
1. EQU
2. %assign
3. %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
STDIN equ 0
STDOUT equ 1
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;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
the 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]

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

This directive also allows redefinition and it is case-
sensitive.

Assembly - Arithmetic
Instructions
The INC Instruction
The INC instruction is used for incrementing an operand by
one. It works on a single operand that can be either in a
register or in memory.

Syntax
The INC instruction has the following syntax −
INC destination

The operand destination could be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit

operand.

Example
INC EBX ​ ; Increments 32-bit register
INC DL ; Increments 8-bit register
INC [count] ; Increments the count variable

The DEC Instruction

The DEC instruction is used for decrementing an operand by
one. It works on a single operand that can be either in a
register or in memory.

Syntax
The DEC instruction has the following syntax −
DEC destination

The operand destination could be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit

operand.

Example
segment .data
count dw 0
value db 15
segment .text
inc [count]
dec [value]
mov ebx, count
inc word [ebx]
mov esi, value
dec byte [esi]

The ADD and SUB Instructions

The ADD and SUB instructions are used for performing
simple addition/subtraction of binary data in byte, word and
doubleword size, i.e., for adding or subtracting 8-bit, 16-bit
or 32-bit operands, respectively.

Syntax
The ADD and SUB instructions have the following syntax −
ADD/SUB ​destination, source

The ADD/SUB instruction can take place between −

1. Register to register
2. Memory to register
3. Register to memory
4. Register to constant data
5. Memory to constant data

However, like other instructions, memory-to-memory

operations are not possible using ADD/SUB instructions. An
ADD or SUB operation sets or clears the overflow and carry
flags.

Example
The following example will ask two digits from the user,
store the digits in the EAX and EBX register, respectively,
add the values, store the result in a memory location 'res'
and finally display the result.
SYS_EXIT equ 1
SYS_READ equ 3
SYS_WRITE equ 4
STDIN equ 0
STDOUT equ 1
segment .data
msg1 db "Enter a digit ", 0xA,0xD
len1 equ $- msg1
msg2 db "Please enter a second digit", 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $- msg2
msg3 db "The sum is: "
len3 equ $- msg3
segment .bss
num1 resb 2
num2 resb 2
res resb 1
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, msg1
mov edx, len1
int 0x80
mov eax, SYS_READ
mov ebx, STDIN
mov ecx, num1
mov edx, 2
 int 0x80
mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, msg2
mov edx, len2
int 0x80
mov eax, SYS_READ
mov ebx, STDIN
mov ecx, num2
mov edx, 2
int 0x80
mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, msg3
mov edx, len3
int 0x80
; moving the first number to eax register and second
number to ebx
; and subtracting ascii '0' to convert it into a decimal
number
mov eax, [num1]
sub eax, '0'
mov ebx, [num2]
sub ebx, '0'
; add eax and ebx
add eax, ebx
; add '0' to to convert the sum from decimal to ASCII
add eax, '0'
; storing the sum in memory location res
mov [res], eax
; print the sum
 mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, res
mov edx, 1
int 0x80
exit:

mov eax, SYS_EXIT

xor ebx, ebx
int 0x80
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Enter a digit:
3
Please enter a second digit:
4
The sum is:
7

The program with hard coded variables −

section .​text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov ​eax,'3'
sub eax, '0'
mov ​ebx, '4'
sub ebx, '0'
add ​eax, ebx
add ​eax, '0'
mov ​[sum], eax
mov ​ecx,msg
mov ​edx, len
mov ​ebx,1 ​;file descriptor (stdout)
 mov ​eax,4 ​;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​;call kernel
mov ​ecx,sum
mov ​edx, 1
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
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $ - msg
segment .bss
sum resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The sum is:
7

The MUL/IMUL Instruction

There are two instructions for multiplying binary data. The
MUL (Multiply) instruction handles unsigned data and the
IMUL (Integer Multiply) handles signed data. Both
instructions affect the Carry and Overflow flag.

Syntax
The syntax for the MUL/IMUL instructions is as follows −
MUL/IMUL multiplier

Multiplicand in both cases will be in an accumulator,

depending upon the size of the multiplicand and the
multiplier and the generated product is also stored in two
registers depending upon the size of the operands.
Following section explains MUL instructions with three
different cases −

Sr.N Scenarios
o.

1 When two bytes are multiplied −

The multiplicand is in the AL register, and the
multiplier is a byte in the memory or in another
register. The product is in AX. High-order 8 bits of
the product is stored in AH and the low-order 8 bits
are stored in AL.

2 When two one-word values are multiplied −

The multiplicand should be in the AX register, and
the multiplier is a word in memory or another
register. For example, for an instruction like MUL
DX, you must store the multiplier in DX and the
multiplicand in AX.
The resultant product is a doubleword, which will
need two registers. The high-order (leftmost)
portion gets stored in DX and the lower-order
(rightmost) portion gets stored in AX.

3 When two doubleword values are multiplied −

When two doubleword values are multiplied, the
multiplicand should be in EAX and the multiplier is
a doubleword value stored in memory or in another
register. The product generated is stored in the
EDX:EAX registers, i.e., the high order 32 bits gets
 stored in the EDX register and the low order 32-bits
are stored in the EAX register.

Example
MOV AL, 10
MOV DL, 25
MUL DL
...
MOV DL, 0FFH ;​ DL= -1
MOV AL, 0BEH ​; AL = -66
IMUL DL

Example
The following example multiplies 3 with 2, and displays the
result −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov ​al,'3'
sub al, '0'
mov ​bl, '2'
sub bl, '0'
mul ​bl
add ​al, '0'
mov ​[res], al
mov ​ecx,msg
mov ​edx, len
mov ​ebx,1 ​;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​;call kernel
mov ​ecx,res
 mov ​edx, 1
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
msg db "The result is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The result is:
6

The DIV/IDIV Instructions

The division operation generates two elements - a quotient
and a remainder. In case of multiplication, overflow does
not occur because double-length registers are used to keep
the product. However, in case of division, overflow may
occur. The processor generates an interrupt if overflow
occurs.
The DIV (Divide) instruction is used for unsigned data and
the IDIV (Integer Divide) is used for signed data.

Syntax
The format for the DIV/IDIV instruction −
DIV/IDIV ​divisor
The dividend is in an accumulator. Both the instructions can
work with 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit operands. The operation
affects all six status flags. Following section explains three
cases of division with different operand size −

Sr.N Scenarios
o.

1 When the divisor is 1 byte −

The dividend is assumed to be in the AX register
(16 bits). After division, the quotient goes to the AL
register and the remainder goes to the AH register.

2 When the divisor is 1 word −

The dividend is assumed to be 32 bits long and in
the DX:AX registers. The high-order 16 bits are in
DX and the low-order 16 bits are in AX. After
division, the 16-bit quotient goes to the AX register
and the 16-bit remainder goes to the DX register.

3 When the divisor is doubleword −

The dividend is assumed to be 64 bits long and in
the EDX:EAX registers. The high-order 32 bits are in
EDX and the low-order 32 bits are in EAX. After
 division, the 32-bit quotient goes to the EAX
register and the 32-bit remainder goes to the EDX
register.

Example
The following example divides 8 with 2. The dividend 8 is
stored in the 16-bit AX register and the divisor 2 is
stored in the 8-bit BL register.
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov ​ax,'8'
sub ax, '0'
mov ​bl, '2'
sub bl, '0'
div ​bl
add ​ax, '0'
mov ​[res], ax
mov ​ecx,msg
mov ​edx, len
mov ​ebx,1 ​;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​;call kernel
mov ​ecx,res
mov ​edx, 1
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
msg db "The result is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The result is:
4

Assembly - Logical
Instructions
The processor instruction set provides the instructions AND,
OR, XOR, TEST, and NOT Boolean logic, which tests, sets,
and clears the bits according to the need of the program.
The format for these instructions −

Sr.N Instructio Format

o. n

1 AND AND operand1,

operand2

2 OR OR operand1, operand2

3 XOR XOR operand1,

operand2

4 TEST TEST operand1,

 operand2

5 NOT NOT operand1

The first operand in all the cases could be either in register

or in memory. The second operand could be either in
register/memory or an immediate (constant) value.
However, memory-to-memory operations are not possible.
These instructions compare or match bits of the operands
and set the CF, OF, PF, SF and ZF flags.

The AND Instruction

The AND instruction is used for supporting logical
expressions by performing bitwise AND operation. The
bitwise AND operation returns 1, if the matching bits from
both the operands are 1, otherwise it returns 0. For example
−
Operand1: 0101
Operand2: 0011
----------------------------
After AND -> Operand1: ​0001

The AND operation can be used for clearing one or more

bits. For example, say the BL register contains 0011 1010. If
you need to clear the high-order bits to zero, you AND it
with 0FH.
AND ​BL, 0FH ; This sets BL to 0000 1010
Let's take up another example. If you want to check whether
a given number is odd or even, a simple test would be to
check the least significant bit of the number. If this is 1, the
number is odd, else the number is even.
Assuming the number is in AL register, we can write −
AND ​AL, 01H ; ANDing with 0000 0001
JZ EVEN_NUMBER
The following program illustrates this −

Example
section .text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov ax, 8h ;getting 8 in the ax
and ax, 1 ;and ax with 1
jz evnn
mov eax, 4 ;system call number (sys_write)
mov ebx, 1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ecx, odd_msg ;message to write
mov edx, len2 ;length of message
int 0x80 ;call kernel
jmp outprog
evnn:

mov ah, 09h

mov eax, 4 ;system call number (sys_write)
mov ebx, 1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ecx, even_msg ;message to write
mov edx, len1 ;length of message
int 0x80 ;call kernel
outprog:
mov eax,1 ;system call number (sys_exit)
int 0x80 ;call kernel
section .data
even_msg db 'Even Number!' ;message showing even
number
len1 equ $ - even_msg
odd_msg db 'Odd Number!' ;message showing odd
number
len2 equ $ - odd_msg
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Even Number!

Change the value in the ax register with an odd digit, like −

mov ax, 9h ; getting 9 in the ax
The program would display:
Odd Number!

Similarly to clear the entire register you can AND it with

00H.

The OR Instruction
The OR instruction is used for supporting logical expression
by performing bitwise OR operation. The bitwise OR
operator returns 1, if the matching bits from either or both
operands are one. It returns 0, if both the bits are zero.
For example,
Operand1: 0101
Operand2: 0011
----------------------------
After OR -> Operand1: 0111

The OR operation can be used for setting one or more bits.

For example, let us assume the AL register contains 0011
1010, you need to set the four low-order bits, you can OR it
with a value 0000 1111, i.e., FH.
OR BL, 0FH ; This sets BL to 0011 1111
Example
The following example demonstrates the OR instruction. Let
us store the value 5 and 3 in the AL and the BL registers,
respectively, then the instruction,
OR AL, BL
should store 7 in the AL register −
section .text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov al, 5 ;getting 5 in the al
mov bl, 3 ;getting 3 in the bl
or al, bl ;or al and bl registers, result should be 7
add al, byte '0' ;converting decimal to ascii
mov [result], al
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, result
mov edx, 1
int 0x80

outprog:
mov eax,1 ;system call number (sys_exit)
int 0x80 ;call kernel
section .bss
result resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
7

The XOR Instruction

The XOR instruction implements the bitwise XOR operation.
The XOR operation sets the resultant bit to 1, if and only if
the bits from the operands are different. If the bits from the
operands are same (both 0 or both 1), the resultant bit is
cleared to 0.
For example,
Operand1: 0101
Operand2: 0011
----------------------------
After XOR -> Operand1: 0110

XORing an operand with itself changes the operand to 0.

This is used to clear a register.
XOR EAX, EAX

The TEST Instruction

The TEST instruction works same as the AND operation, but
unlike AND instruction, it does not change the first operand.
So, if we need to check whether a number in a register is
even or odd, we can also do this using the TEST instruction
without changing the original number.
TEST AL, 01H
JZ EVEN_NUMBER

The NOT Instruction

The NOT instruction implements the bitwise NOT operation.
NOT operation reverses the bits in an operand. The operand
could be either in a register or in the memory.
For example,
Operand1: 0101 0011
After NOT -> Operand1: 1010 1100

Assembly - Conditions
Conditional execution in assembly language is accomplished
by several looping and branching instructions. These
instructions can change the flow of control in a program.
Conditional execution is observed in two scenarios −

Sr.N Conditional Instructions

o.

1 Unconditional jump
This is performed by the JMP instruction.
Conditional execution often involves a transfer of
control to the address of an instruction that does
not follow the currently executing instruction.
Transfer of control may be forward, to execute a
new set of instructions or backward, to re-execute
the same steps.

2 Conditional jump
This is performed by a set of jump instructions
j<condition> depending upon the condition. The
conditional instructions transfer the control by
breaking the sequential flow and they do it by
changing the offset value in IP.

Let us discuss the CMP instruction before discussing the

conditional instructions.

CMP Instruction
The CMP instruction compares two operands. It is generally
used in conditional execution. This instruction basically
subtracts one operand from the other for comparing
whether the operands are equal or not. It does not disturb
the destination or source operands. It is used along with the
conditional jump instruction for decision making.

Syntax
CMP destination, source

CMP compares two numeric data fields. The destination

operand could be either in register or in memory. The source
operand could be a constant (immediate) data, register or
memory.

Example
CMP DX, 0 ​ 0 ; Compare the DX value with zero
JE L7 ; If yes, then jump to label L7
.
.
L7: ...
CMP is often used for comparing whether a counter value
has reached the number of times a loop needs to be run.
Consider the following typical condition −
INC ​EDX
CMP ​EDX, 10 ​; Compares whether the counter has
reached 10
JLE ​LP1 ; If it is less than or equal to 10, then jump to
LP1

Unconditional Jump
As mentioned earlier, this is performed by the JMP
instruction. Conditional execution often involves a transfer
of control to the address of an instruction that does not
follow the currently executing instruction. Transfer of control
may be forward, to execute a new set of instructions or
backward, to re-execute the same steps.
Syntax
The JMP instruction provides a label name where the flow of
control is transferred immediately. The syntax of the JMP
instruction is −
JMP ​label

Example
The following code snippet illustrates the JMP instruction −
MOV AX, 00 ; Initializing AX to 0
MOV BX, 00 ; Initializing BX to 0
MOV CX, 01 ; Initializing CX to 1
L20:
ADD AX, 01 ; Increment AX
ADD BX, AX ; Add AX to BX
SHL CX, 1 ; shift left CX, this in turn doubles the CX value
JMP L20 ; repeats the statements

Conditional Jump
If some specified condition is satisfied in conditional jump,
the control flow is transferred to a target instruction. There
are numerous conditional jump instructions depending upon
the condition and data.
Following are the conditional jump instructions used on
signed data used for arithmetic operations −

Instructi Description Flags

on tested

JE/JZ Jump Equal or Jump Zero ZF

JNE/JNZ Jump not Equal or Jump Not Zero ZF

JG/JNLE Jump Greater or Jump Not OF, SF, ZF
Less/Equal

JGE/JNL Jump Greater/Equal or Jump Not OF, SF

Less

JL/JNGE Jump Less or Jump Not OF, SF

Greater/Equal

JLE/JNG Jump Less/Equal or Jump Not OF, SF, ZF

Greater

Following are the conditional jump instructions used on

unsigned data used for logical operations −

Instructi Description Flags

on tested

JE/JZ Jump Equal or Jump Zero ZF

JNE/JNZ Jump not Equal or Jump Not Zero ZF

JA/JNBE Jump Above or Jump Not CF, ZF

Below/Equal

JAE/JNB Jump Above/Equal or Jump Not CF

Below

JB/JNAE Jump Below or Jump Not CF

Above/Equal

JBE/JNA Jump Below/Equal or Jump Not AF, CF

Above

The following conditional jump instructions have special

uses and check the value of flags −
 Instructi Description Flags
on tested

JXCZ Jump if CX is Zero none

JC Jump If Carry CF

JNC Jump If No Carry CF

JO Jump If Overflow OF

JNO Jump If No Overflow OF

JP/JPE Jump Parity or Jump Parity Even PF

JNP/JPO Jump No Parity or Jump Parity PF

Odd

JS Jump Sign (negative value) SF

JNS Jump No Sign (positive value) SF

The syntax for the J<condition> set of instructions −

Example,
CMP ​AL, BL
JE ​EQUAL
CMP ​AL, BH
JE ​EQUAL
CMP ​AL, CL
JE ​EQUAL
NON_EQUAL: ...
EQUAL: ...

Example
The following program displays the largest of three
variables. The variables are double-digit variables. The three
variables num1, num2 and num3 have values 47, 22 and
31, respectively −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov ecx, [num1]
cmp ecx, [num2]
jg check_third_num
mov ecx, [num2]

​check_third_num:
cmp ecx, [num3]
jg _exit
mov ecx, [num3]

​_exit:

mov [largest], ecx

mov ecx,msg
mov edx, len
mov ebx,1 ​;file descriptor (stdout)
mov eax,4 ​;system call number (sys_write)
int 0x80 ​;call kernel
mov ecx,largest
mov edx, 2
mov ebx,1 ​;file descriptor (stdout)
mov eax,4 ​;system call number (sys_write)
int 0x80 ​;call kernel

mov eax, 1
int 80h
section ​.data

msg db "The largest digit is: ", 0xA,0xD

len equ $- msg
num1 dd '47'
num2 dd '22'
num3 dd '31'
segment .bss
largest resb 2
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The largest digit is:
47

Assembly - Loops
The JMP instruction can be used for implementing loops. For
example, the following code snippet can be used for
executing the loop-body 10 times.
MOV ​CL, 10
L1:
<LOOP-BODY>
DEC ​CL
JNZ ​L1
The processor instruction set, however, includes a group of
loop instructions for implementing iteration. The basic LOOP
instruction has the following syntax −
LOOP ​label

Where, label is the target label that identifies the target

instruction as in the jump instructions. The LOOP instruction
assumes that the ECX register contains the loop count.
When the loop instruction is executed, the ECX register is
decremented and the control jumps to the target label, until
the ECX register value, i.e., the counter reaches the value
zero.
The above code snippet could be written as −
mov ECX,10
l1:
<loop body>
loop l1

Example
The following program prints the number 1 to 9 on the
screen −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov ecx,10
mov eax, '1'
l1:
mov [num], eax
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
push ecx
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 1
int 0x80
mov eax, [num]
sub eax, '0'
inc eax
add eax, '0'
pop ecx
loop l1
mov eax,1 ;system call number (sys_exit)
 int 0x80 ;call kernel
section ​.bss
num resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
123456789:

Assembly - Numbers
Numerical data is generally represented in binary system.
Arithmetic instructions operate on binary data. When
numbers are displayed on screen or entered from keyboard,
they are in ASCII form.
So far, we have converted this input data in ASCII form to
binary for arithmetic calculations and converted the result
back to binary. The following code shows this −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov ​eax,'3'
sub eax, '0'
mov ​ebx, '4'
sub ebx, '0'
add ​eax, ebx
add ​eax, '0'
mov ​[sum], eax
mov ​ecx,msg
mov ​edx, len
mov ​ebx,1 ​ ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​ ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​ ;call kernel
mov ​ecx,sum
 mov ​edx, 1
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
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $ - msg
segment .bss
sum resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The sum is:
7

Such conversions, however, have an overhead, and

assembly language programming allows processing
numbers in a more efficient way, in the binary form.
Decimal numbers can be represented in two forms −
1. ASCII form
2. BCD or Binary Coded Decimal form

ASCII Representation
In ASCII representation, decimal numbers are stored as
string of ASCII characters. For example, the decimal value
1234 is stored as −
31 ​32 ​33 ​34H
Where, 31H is ASCII value for 1, 32H is ASCII value for 2,
and so on. There are four instructions for processing
numbers in ASCII representation −
1. AAA − ASCII Adjust After Addition
 2. AAS − ASCII Adjust After Subtraction
3. AAM − ASCII Adjust After Multiplication
4. AAD − ASCII Adjust Before Division

These instructions do not take any operands and assume

the required operand to be in the AL register.
The following example uses the AAS instruction to
demonstrate the concept −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
sub ah, ah
mov al, '9'
sub al, '3'
aas
or al, 30h
mov [res], ax
mov ​edx,len ​ ;message length
mov ​ecx,msg ​ ;message to write
mov ​ebx,1 ​ ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​ ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​ ;call kernel
mov ​edx,1 ​ ;message length
mov ​ecx,res ​ ;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
msg db 'The Result is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg ​
section .bss
res resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The Result is:
6

BCD Representation
There are two types of BCD representation −
1. Unpacked BCD representation
2. Packed BCD representation

In unpacked BCD representation, each byte stores the

binary equivalent of a decimal digit. For example, the
number 1234 is stored as −
01 ​02 ​03 ​04H
There are two instructions for processing these numbers −
1. AAM − ASCII Adjust After Multiplication
2. AAD − ASCII Adjust Before Division

The four ASCII adjust instructions, AAA, AAS, AAM, and AAD,
can also be used with unpacked BCD representation. In
packed BCD representation, each digit is stored using four
bits. Two decimal digits are packed into a byte. For example,
the number 1234 is stored as −
12 ​34H
There are two instructions for processing these numbers −
1. DAA − Decimal Adjust After Addition
2. DAS − decimal Adjust After Subtraction

There is no support for multiplication and division in packed

BCD representation.
Example
The following program adds up two 5-digit decimal numbers
and displays the sum. It uses the above concepts −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov esi, 4 ;pointing to the rightmost digit
mov ecx, 5 ;num of digits
clc
add_loop:
mov ​al, [num1 + esi]
adc ​al, [num2 + esi]
aaa
pushf
or ​al, 30h
popf
mov ​[sum + esi], al
dec ​esi
loop ​add_loop
mov ​edx,len ​ ;message length
mov ​ecx,msg ​ ;message to write
mov ​ebx,1 ​ ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​ ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​ ;call kernel
mov ​edx,5 ​ ;message length
mov ​ecx,sum ​ ;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
msg db 'The Sum is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg ​
num1 db '12345'
num2 db '23456'
sum db ' '
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The Sum is:
35801

Assembly - Strings
We have already used variable length strings in our previous
examples. The variable length strings can have as many
characters as required. Generally, we specify the length of
the string by either of the two ways −
1. Explicitly storing string length
2. Using a sentinel character

We can store the string length explicitly by using the $

location counter symbol that represents the current value of
the location counter. In the following example −
msg db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string
len equ $ - msg ;length of our dear string
$ points to the byte after the last character of the string
variable msg. Therefore, $-msg gives the length of the
string. We can also write
msg db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string
len equ 13 ;length of our dear string
Alternatively, you can store strings with a trailing sentinel
character to delimit a string instead of storing the string
length explicitly. The sentinel character should be a special
character that does not appear within a string.
For example −
message DB 'I am loving it!', 0

String Instructions
Each string instruction may require a source operand, a
destination operand or both. For 32-bit segments, string
instructions use ESI and EDI registers to point to the source
and destination operands, respectively.
For 16-bit segments, however, the SI and the DI registers
are used to point to the source and destination, respectively.
There are five basic instructions for processing strings. They
are −
1. MOVS − This instruction moves 1 Byte, Word or
Doubleword of data from memory location to
another.
2. LODS − This instruction loads from memory. If the
operand is of one byte, it is loaded into the AL
register, if the operand is one word, it is loaded into
the AX register and a doubleword is loaded into the
EAX register.
3. STOS − This instruction stores data from register
(AL, AX, or EAX) to memory.
4. CMPS − This instruction compares two data items
in memory. Data could be of a byte size, word or
doubleword.
5. SCAS − This instruction compares the contents of a
register (AL, AX or EAX) with the contents of an
item in memory.

Each of the above instruction has a byte, word, and

doubleword version, and string instructions can be repeated
by using a repetition prefix.
These instructions use the ES:DI and DS:SI pair of registers,
where DI and SI registers contain valid offset addresses that
refer to bytes stored in memory. SI is normally associated
with DS (data segment) and DI is always associated with ES
(extra segment).
The DS:SI (or ESI) and ES:DI (or EDI) registers point to the
source and destination operands, respectively. The source
operand is assumed to be at DS:SI (or ESI) and the
destination operand at ES:DI (or EDI) in memory.
For 16-bit addresses, the SI and DI registers are used, and
for 32-bit addresses, the ESI and EDI registers are used.
The following table provides various versions of string
instructions and the assumed space of the operands.

Basic Operan Byte Word Double

Instructi ds at Operati Operati word
on on on Operation

MOVS ES:DI, MOVSB MOVSW MOVSD

DS:SI

LODS AX, LODSB LODSW LODSD

DS:SI

STOS ES:DI, STOSB STOSW STOSD

AX

CMPS DS:SI, CMPSB CMPSW CMPSD

ES: DI

SCAS ES:DI, SCASB SCASW SCASD

AX
Repetition Prefixes
The REP prefix, when set before a string instruction, for
example - REP MOVSB, causes repetition of the instruction
based on a counter placed at the CX register. REP executes
the instruction, decreases CX by 1, and checks whether CX
is zero. It repeats the instruction processing until CX is zero.
The Direction Flag (DF) determines the direction of the
operation.
1. Use CLD (Clear Direction Flag, DF = 0) to make the
operation left to right.
2. Use STD (Set Direction Flag, DF = 1) to make the
operation right to left.

The REP prefix also has the following variations:

1. REP: It is the unconditional repeat. It repeats the
operation until CX is zero.
2. REPE or REPZ: It is conditional repeat. It repeats the
operation while the zero flag indicates equal/zero. It
stops when the ZF indicates not equal/zero or when
CX is zero.
3. REPNE or REPNZ: It is also conditional repeat. It
repeats the operation while the zero flag indicates
not equal/zero. It stops when the ZF indicates
equal/zero or when CX is decremented to zero.

Assembly - Arrays
We have already discussed that the data definition
directives to the assembler are used for allocating storage
for variables. The variable could also be initialized with
some specific value. The initialized value could be specified
in hexadecimal, decimal or binary form.
For example, we can define a word variable 'months' in
either of the following way −
MONTHS ​ W
D ​2
1
MONTHS ​DW ​0CH
MONTHS ​DW ​0110B
The data definition directives can also be used for defining a
one-dimensional array. Let us define a one-dimensional
array of numbers.
NUMBERS ​DW 34, 45, 56, 67, 75, 89
The above definition declares an array of six words each
initialized with the numbers 34, 45, 56, 67, 75, 89. This
allocates 2x6 = 12 bytes of consecutive memory space. The
symbolic address of the first number will be NUMBERS and
that of the second number will be NUMBERS + 2 and so on.
Let us take up another example. You can define an array
named inventory of size 8, and initialize all the values with
zero, as −
INVENTORY DW 0
DW 0
DW 0
DW 0
DW 0
DW 0
DW 0
DW 0
Which can be abbreviated as −
INVENTORY DW 0, 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0
The TIMES directive can also be used for multiple
initializations to the same value. Using TIMES, the
INVENTORY array can be defined as:
INVENTORY TIMES 8 DW 0
Example
The following example demonstrates the above concepts by
defining a 3-element array x, which stores three values: 2, 3
and 4. It adds the values in the array and displays the sum 9
−
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for linker (ld)
_start:

mov eax,3 ;number bytes to be summed

mov ebx,0 ;EBX will store the sum
mov ecx, x ;ECX will point to the current element to be
summed
top: add ebx, [ecx]
add ecx,1 ;move pointer to next element
dec eax ;decrement counter
jnz top ;if counter not 0, then loop again
done:
add ebx, '0'
mov [sum], ebx ;done, store result in "sum"
display:
mov edx,1 ;message length
mov ecx, sum ;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
global x
x:
db 2
db 4
db 3
sum:
db 0
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
9

Assembly - Procedures
Procedures or subroutines are very important in assembly
language, as the assembly language programs tend to be
large in size. Procedures are identified by a name. Following
this name, the body of the procedure is described which
performs a well-defined job. End of the procedure is
indicated by a return statement.

Syntax
Following is the syntax to define a procedure −
proc_name:
procedure body
...
ret
The procedure is called from another function by using the
CALL instruction. The CALL instruction should have the
name of the called procedure as an argument as shown
below −
CALL proc_name
The called procedure returns the control to the calling
procedure by using the RET instruction.

Example
Let us write a very simple procedure named sum that adds
the variables stored in the ECX and EDX register and returns
the sum in the EAX register −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov ​ecx,'4'
sub ecx, '0'
mov ​edx, '5'
sub edx, '0'
call sum ;call sum procedure
mov ​[res], eax
mov ​ecx, msg
mov ​edx, len
mov ​ebx,1 ​ ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ​ ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ​ ;call kernel
mov ​ecx, res
mov ​edx, 1
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
sum:
mov eax, ecx
add eax, edx
add eax, '0'
ret
section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
The sum is:
9

Stacks Data Structure

A stack is an array-like data structure in the memory in
which data can be stored and removed from a location
called the 'top' of the stack. The data that needs to be
stored is 'pushed' into the stack and data to be retrieved is
'popped' out from the stack. Stack is a LIFO data structure,
i.e., the data stored first is retrieved last.
Assembly language provides two instructions for stack
operations: PUSH and POP. These instructions have syntaxes
like −
PUSH operand
POP address/register

The memory space reserved in the stack segment is used

for implementing stack. The registers SS and ESP (or SP) are
used for implementing the stack. The top of the stack, which
points to the last data item inserted into the stack is pointed
to by the SS:ESP register, where the SS register points to
the beginning of the stack segment and the SP (or ESP)
gives the offset into the stack segment.
The stack implementation has the following characteristics
−
 1. Only words or doublewords could be saved into
the stack, not a byte.
2. The stack grows in the reverse direction, i.e.,
toward the lower memory address
3. The top of the stack points to the last item inserted
in the stack; it points to the lower byte of the last
word inserted.

As we discussed about storing the values of the registers in

the stack before using them for some use; it can be done in
following way −
; Save the AX and BX registers in the stack
PUSH AX
PUSH BX
; Use the registers for other purpose
MOV ​AX, VALUE1
MOV ​BX, VALUE2
...
MOV ​VALUE1, AX
MOV ​VALUE2, BX
; Restore the original values
POP ​BX
POP ​AX

Example
The following program displays the entire ASCII character
set. The main program calls a procedure named display,
which displays the ASCII character set.
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
call display
mov ​eax,1 ​ ;system call number (sys_exit)
 int​0x80 ​ ;call kernel
display:
mov ecx, 256
next:
push ecx
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, achar
mov edx, 1
int 80h
pop ecx
mov ​dx, [achar]
cmp ​byte [achar], 0dh
inc ​byte [achar]
loop next
ret
section .data
achar db '0'
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
0123456789:;<=>?
@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnop
qrstuvwxyz{|}
...
...

Assembly - Recursion
A recursive procedure is one that calls itself. There are two
kinds of recursion: direct and indirect. In direct recursion,
the procedure calls itself and in indirect recursion, the first
procedure calls a second procedure, which in turn calls the
first procedure.
Recursion could be observed in numerous mathematical
algorithms. For example, consider the case of calculating
the factorial of a number. Factorial of a number is given by
the equation −
Fact (n) = n * fact (n-1) for n > 0
For example: factorial of 5 is 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 = 5 x factorial
of 4 and this can be a good example of showing a recursive
procedure. Every recursive algorithm must have an ending
condition, i.e., the recursive calling of the program should
be stopped when a condition is fulfilled. In the case of a
factorial algorithm, the end condition is reached when n is 0.
The following program shows how factorial n is implemented
in assembly language. To keep the program simple, we will
calculate factorial 3.
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
mov bx, 3 ;for calculating factorial 3
call proc_fact
add ax, 30h
mov [fact], ax

mov ​ edx,len ;message length

mov ​ ecx,msg ;message to write
mov ​ ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​ eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
int​ 0x80 ;call kernel
mov edx,1 ;message length
mov ​ ecx,fact ;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
proc_fact:
cmp bl, 1
jg do_calculation
mov ax, 1
ret
do_calculation:
dec bl
call proc_fact
inc bl
mul bl ;ax = al * bl
ret
section ​.data
msg db 'Factorial 3 is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg ​
section .bss
fact resb 1
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Factorial 3 is:
6
Print Page

Assembly - Macros
Writing a macro is another way of ensuring modular
programming in assembly language.
1. A macro is a sequence of instructions, assigned by
a name and could be used anywhere in the
program.
 2. In NASM, macros are defined with %macro and
%endmacro directives.
3. The macro begins with the %macro directive and
ends with the %endmacro directive.

The Syntax for macro definition −

%macro macro_name number_of_params
<macro body>
%endmacro

Where, number_of_params specifies the number

parameters, macro_name specifies the name of the macro.
The macro is invoked by using the macro name along with
the necessary parameters. When you need to use some
sequence of instructions many times in a program, you can
put those instructions in a macro and use it instead of
writing the instructions all the time.
For example, a very common need for programs is to write a
string of characters on the screen. For displaying a string of
characters, you need the following sequence of instructions
−
mov ​ dx,len
e ​ ;message length
mov ​ecx,msg ​ ;message to write
mov ​ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
mov ​eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
int ​0x80 ;call kernel
In the above example of displaying a character string, the
registers EAX, EBX, ECX and EDX have been used by the INT
80H function call. So, each time you need to display on
screen, you need to save these registers on the stack,
invoke INT 80H and then restore the original value of the
registers from the stack. So, it could be useful to write two
macros for saving and restoring data.
We have observed that some instructions like IMUL, IDIV,
INT, etc., need some of the information to be stored in some
particular registers and even return values in some specific
register(s). If the program was already using those registers
for keeping important data, then the existing data from
these registers should be saved in the stack and restored
after the instruction is executed.

Example
Following example shows defining and using macros −
; A macro with two parameters
; Implements the write system call
%macro write_string 2
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, %1
mov edx, %2
int 80h
%endmacro

section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
write_string msg1, len1
write_string msg2, len2
write_string msg3, len3
mov eax,1 ;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
the following result −
Hello, programmers!
Welcome to the world of,
Linux assembly programming!

Assembly - File
Management
The system considers any input or output data as a stream
of bytes. There are three standard file streams −
1. Standard input (stdin),
2. Standard output (stdout), and
3. Standard error (stderr).

File Descriptor
A file descriptor is a 16-bit integer assigned to a file as a
file id. When a new file is created or an existing file is
opened, the file descriptor is used for accessing the file.
File descriptors of the standard file streams - stdin, stdout
and stderr are 0, 1 and 2, respectively.

File Pointer
A file pointer specifies the location for a subsequent
read/write operation in the file in terms of bytes. Each file is
considered as a sequence of bytes. Each open file is
associated with a file pointer that specifies an offset in
bytes, relative to the beginning of the file. When a file is
opened, the file pointer is set to zero.

File Handling System Calls

The following table briefly describes the system calls related
to file handling −

%e Name %ebx %ecx %edx

ax

2 sys_for struct - -
k pt_regs

3 sys_rea unsigned char * size_t

d int

4 sys_wri unsigned const char size_t

te int *

5 sys_op const char * int int

en

6 sys_clo unsigned - -
se int

8 sys_cre const char * int -

at

19 sys_lse unsigned off_t unsigned

ek int int

The steps required for using the system calls are same, as
we discussed earlier −
1. Put the system call number in the EAX register.
2. Store the arguments to the system call in the
registers EBX, ECX, etc.
 3. Call the relevant interrupt (80h).
4. The result is usually returned in the EAX register.

Creating and Opening a File

For creating and opening a file, perform the following tasks
−
1. Put the system call sys_creat() number 8, in the
EAX register.
2. Put the filename in the EBX register.
3. Put the file permissions in the ECX register.

The system call returns the file descriptor of the created file
in the EAX register, in case of error, the error code is in the
EAX register.

Opening an Existing File

For opening an existing file, perform the following tasks −
1. Put the system call sys_open() number 5, in the EAX
register.
2. Put the filename in the EBX register.
3. Put the file access mode in the ECX register.
4. Put the file permissions in the EDX register.

The system call returns the file descriptor of the created file
in the EAX register, in case of error, the error code is in the
EAX register.
Among the file access modes, most commonly used are:
read-only (0), write-only (1), and read-write (2).

Reading from a File

For reading from a file, perform the following tasks −
 1. Put the system call sys_read() number 3, in the EAX
register.
2. Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.
3. Put the pointer to the input buffer in the ECX
register.
4. Put the buffer size, i.e., the number of bytes to
read, in the EDX register.

The system call returns the number of bytes read in the EAX
register, in case of error, the error code is in the EAX
register.

Writing to a File
For writing to a file, perform the following tasks −
1. Put the system call sys_write() number 4, in the EAX
register.
2. Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.
3. Put the pointer to the output buffer in the ECX
register.
4. Put the buffer size, i.e., the number of bytes to
write, in the EDX register.

The system call returns the actual number of bytes written

in the EAX register, in case of error, the error code is in the
EAX register.

Closing a File
For closing a file, perform the following tasks −
1. Put the system call sys_close() number 6, in the
EAX register.
2. Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

The system call returns, in case of error, the error code in

the EAX register.
Updating a File
For updating a file, perform the following tasks −
1. Put the system call sys_lseek () number 19, in the
EAX register.
2. Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.
3. Put the offset value in the ECX register.
4. Put the reference position for the offset in the EDX
register.

The reference position could be:

1. Beginning of file - value 0
2. Current position - value 1
3. End of file - value 2

The system call returns, in case of error, the error code in

the EAX register.

Example
The following program creates and opens a file named
myfile.txt, and writes a text 'Welcome to Tutorials Point' in
this file. Next, the program reads from the file and stores
the data into a buffer named info. Lastly, it displays the text
as stored in info.
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start: ;tell linker entry point
;create the file
mov eax, 8
mov ebx, file_name
mov ecx, 0777 ;read, write and execute by all
int 0x80 ;call kernel
mov [fd_out], eax
; write into the file
mov ​edx,len ;number of bytes
mov ​ecx, msg ;message to write
mov ​ebx, [fd_out] ;file descriptor
mov ​eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
int​0x80 ;call kernel
; close the file
mov eax, 6
mov ebx, [fd_out]

; write the message indicating end of file write

mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, msg_done
mov edx, len_done
int 0x80

;open the file for reading

mov eax, 5
mov ebx, file_name
mov ecx, 0 ;for read only access
mov edx, 0777 ;read, write and execute by all
int 0x80
mov [fd_in], eax

;read from file

mov eax, 3
mov ebx, [fd_in]
mov ecx, info
mov edx, 26
int 0x80

; close the file

mov eax, 6
mov ebx, [fd_in]
int 0x80
 ; print the info
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, info
mov edx, 26
int 0x80

mov ​eax,1 ;system call number (sys_exit)

int​0x80 ;call kernel
section ​.data
file_name db 'myfile.txt'
msg db 'Welcome to Tutorials Point'
len equ $-msg
msg_done db 'Written to file', 0xa
len_done equ $-msg_done
section .bss
fd_out resb 1
fd_in resb 1
info resb 26
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Written to file
Welcome to Tutorials Point

Assembly - Memory
Management
The sys_brk() system call is provided by the kernel, to
allocate memory without the need of moving it later. This
call allocates memory right behind the application image in
the memory. This system function allows you to set the
highest available address in the data section.
This system call takes one parameter, which is the highest
memory address needed to be set. This value is stored in
the EBX register.
In case of any error, sys_brk() returns -1 or returns the
negative error code itself. The following example
demonstrates dynamic memory allocation.

Example
The following program allocates 16kb of memory using the
sys_brk() system call −
section ​.text
global _start ;must be declared for using gcc
_start:​ ;tell linker entry point
mov ​ ax, 45
e ​ ​;sys_brk
xor ​ebx, ebx
int​80h
add ​ ax, 16384 ​;number of bytes to be reserved
e
mov ​ebx, eax
mov ​eax, 45 ​ ​;sys_brk
int​80h
cmp ​ ax, 0
e
jl ​exit ​;exit, if error
mov ​edi, eax ​;EDI = highest available address
sub ​edi, 4 ​ ​;pointing to the last DWORD
mov ​ecx, 4096 ​;number of DWORDs allocated
xor ​eax, eax ​;clear eax
std ​ ​;backward
rep ​stosd ;repete for entire allocated area
cld ​ ​;put DF flag to normal state
mov ​eax, 4
 mov ​ bx, 1
e
mov ​ecx, msg
mov ​edx, len
int​80h ​ ​;print a message
exit:
mov ​eax, 1
xor ​ebx, ebx
int​80h
section ​.data
msg ​db ​"Allocated 16 kb of memory!", 10
len equ ​$ - msg
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces
the following result −
Allocated 16 kb of memory!