A direct assignment statement equates a symbol to a specific
value. Unlike a symbol that you use as a label, you can redefine
a symbol defined with a direct assignment statement as many times
as you want.
FORMATS
symbol=expression
symbol==expression
symbol=quoted-literal
symbol
A user-defined symbol.
expression
An expression that does not contain any undefined symbols or
forward references. The result must be either an absolute or
relocatable value, whose value can be determined at the current
point in the assembly. This form defines a numeric symbol.
The format with a single equal sign (=) defines a local symbol,
and the format with a double equal sign (==) defines a global
symbol.
The following three syntactic rules apply to direct assignment
statements:
o An equal sign (=) or double equal sign (==) must separate
the symbol from the expression that defines its value. Spaces
preceding or following the direct assignment operators have no
significance in the resulting value.
o Only one symbol can be defined in a single direct assignment
statement.
o A direct assignment statement can be followed only by a
comment field.
For best results, Digital recommends you place the symbol in a
direct assignment statement in the label field. For example:
A == 1 ; The symbol 'A' is globally
; equated to the value 1
B = A@5 ; The symbol 'B' is equated
; to 1@5 or 32(dec)
C = 127*10 ; The symbol 'C' is equated
; to 1270(dec)
D = ^X100/^X10 ; The symbol 'D' is equated
; to 10(hex)
quoted-literal
A literal within double quotes. This form defines a lexical
string symbol. You can only use lexical string symbols with
lexical string operators.