Assembler Directives and Pseudo-Operations
.BYTE Pseudo-Operation
.BYTE Pseudo-Operation
The .BYTE pseudo-operation reserves storage and initializes it to the given value.
Syntax
.BYTE [ init_value[ , init_value] ...]
Parameters
init_value Either a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number or a sequence of ASCII characters, surrounded by quotation marks. If you omit the initializing value, the Assembler initializes the area to zero.
Discussion
The .BYTE pseudo-operation requests 8 bits of storage. If the location counter is not properly aligned on a boundary for a data item of that size, the Assembler advances the location counter to the next multiple of that item's size before reserving the area.
When you label the pseudo-operation, the label refers to the first byte of the storage area. Operands separated by commas initialize successive units of storage.
Example
The first pseudo-operation allocates a byte labeled E and initializes it to the character [ .
E .BYTE "["