Lexical string symbols are similar in concept and syntax to
numeric symbols. MACRO-64 supports numeric symbols using the
following syntax:
numeric_symbol_name = numeric_expression
MACRO-64 supports lexical string symbols using the following
syntax:
string_symbol_name = "any string of characters"
The assembler differentiates between numeric symbol assignment
and lexical string symbol assignment as follows:
o In a lexical string symbol assignment, a quoted string literal
must appear after the equal sign.
o A lexical string symbol value is specified by the quoted
string literal.
The quotes are not included in the value of the lexical string
symbol. You cannot use the same name for a lexical string symbol,
numeric symbol, or label.
Like numeric symbols, lexical string symbols are assembly time
variables. After you assign a string value to a lexical string
symbol, you can reassign a different value to that symbol later
in the assembly.
You can use lexical string symbols as arguments to lexical
operators. In particular, you can use a lexical string symbol
as an argument to the lexical substitution operator (%) or the
%STRING lexical operator to substitute the value of the lexical
string symbol at any point in the text of your program.