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Compiler
ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE SPECIFICATIONS
Directives
Outline

5.2.1 Outline

Instructions are translated into machine language as a result of assembling, but directives are not converted into machine language in principle.

Directives contain the following functions mainly:

-	To facilitate description of source programs

-	To initialize memory and reserve memory areas

-	To provide the information required for assemblers and optimizing linkers to perform their intended processing

The following table shows the types of directives.

Table 5.13

List of Directives

The following sections explain the details of each directive.

In the description format of each directive, "[ ]" indicates that the parameter in square brackets may be omitted from specification, and "..." indicates the repetition of description in the same format.

Type	Directives
Section definition directives	.SECTION, .CSEG, .DSEG, .ORG, .OFFSET
Symbol definition directives	.EQU, .SET
Data definition/Area reservation directives	.DB, .DB2, .DB4, .DB8, .DS, .ALIGN
External definition/External reference directives	.PUBLIC, .EXTERN, .EXTBIT, .WEAK [V1.11 or later]
Compiler output directives	.LINE, .STACK, ._LINE_TOP, ._LINE_END, .VECTOR, .ALIAS [V1.11.00 or later], .TYPE [V1.11.00 or later]
Macro directives	.MACRO, .LOCAL, .REPT, .IRP, .EXITM, .EXITMA, .ENDM
Branch directives	.Bcond