Number of characters directive

    Format

      .NCHR  symbol,<string>

1  –  Parameters

 symbol

    A symbol that is assigned a value equal to the number of
    characters in the specified character string.

 <string>

    A sequence of printable characters. Delimit the character
    string with angle brackets (<>)  (or a character preceded by a
    circumflex (^))  only if the specified character string contains
    a legal separator (comma, space, or tab) or a
    semicolon (;).

2  –  Description

    .NCHR determines the number of characters in a specified
    character string. It can appear anywhere in an MACRO-64 program
    and is useful in calculating the length of macro arguments.

3  –  Notes

    o  You can use the %LENGTH lexical operator instead of the .NCHR
       directive.

4  –  Examples

      Example 1
      The macro definition is as follows:

        .MACRO   CHAR    MESS                  ; Define MACRO
        .NCHR    CHRCNT,<MESS>      ; Assign value to CHRCNT
        .WORD    CHRCNT                        ; Store value
        .ASCII   "MESS"                        ; Store characters
        .ENDM    CHAR                          ; Finish
      Example 2
      The macro calls and expansions of the macro previously defined
      are as follows:

        CHAR     <HELLO>                        ; CHRCNT will = 5
        .NCHR    CHRCNT,<HELLO>                 ; Assign value to CHRCNT
        .WORD    CHRCNT                          ; Store value
        .ASCII   "HELLO"                         ; Store characters

        CHAR     <14, 75.39  4>                 ; CHRCNT will = 12(dec)
        .NCHR    CHRCNT,<14, 75.39  4>          ; Assign value to CHRCNT
        .WORD    CHRCNT                          ; Store value
        .ASCII   "14, 75.39  4"                  ; Store characters