Summary of constants

Table 1 and Table 2 summarize the types of assembler constants.

Table 1. Summary of constants (part 1 of 2)
Constant	Type	Implicit Length (Bytes)	Alignment	Length Modifier Range	Specified By
Address	A	4	Fullword	.1 to 4¹	Any expression
Doubleword Address	AD	8	Doubleword	.1 to 8¹	Any expression
Binary	B	As needed	Byte	.1 to 256	Binary digits
Character	C	As needed	Byte	.1 to 256²	Characters
ASCII Character	CA	As needed	Byte	.1 to 256²	Characters
Unicode Character	CU	As needed	Byte	1 to 256³	Characters
Floating Point Hex	D	8	Doubleword	.1 to 8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Hex	DH	8	Doubleword	.12 to 8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Binary	DB	8	Doubleword	.12 to 8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Decimal	DD	8	Doubleword	8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Hex	E	4	Fullword	.1 to 8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Hex	EH	4	Fullword	.12 to 8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Binary	EB	4	Fullword	.9 to 8	Decimal digits
Floating Point Decimal	ED	4	Fullword	4	Decimal digits
Fixed Point	F	4	Fullword	.1 to 8	Decimal digits
Doubleword Fixed Point	FD	8	Doubleword	.1 to 8	Decimal digits
Graphic (DBCS)	G	As needed	Byte	2 to 256³	DBCS characters
Fixed Point	H	2	Halfword	.1 to 8	Decimal digits
Length	J	4	Fullword	1 to 4	Class name or external DSECT name⁴
Floating Point Hex	L	16	Doubleword	.1 to 16	Decimal digits
Floating Point Hex	LH	16	Doubleword	.12 to 16	Decimal digits
Floating Point Binary	LB	16	Doubleword	.16 to 16	Decimal digits
Floating Point Decimal	LD	16	Doubleword	16	Decimal digits
Floating Point Hex	LQ	16	Quadword	.1 to 16	Decimal digits
Decimal	P	As needed	Byte	.1 to 16	Decimal digits
Offset	Q QY⁴	4 3	Fullword Halfword	1 to 4 3 only	Symbol naming a DXD, DSECT, or part
Address	R⁴	4	Fullword	3, 4	Symbol
Address	S SY	2 3	Halfword Halfword	2 only 3 only	One absolute or relocatable expression, or two absolute expressions: `exp(exp)`
Address	V	4	Fullword	3, 4	Relocatable symbol
Hexadecimal	X	As needed	Byte	.1 to 256²	Hex digits
Address	Y	2	Halfword	.1 to 2¹	Any expression
Decimal	Z	As needed	Byte	.1 to 16	Decimal digits
Notes: Bit length specification permitted with absolute expressions only; relocatable A-type constants, 2, 3, or 4 bytes only; relocatable Y-type constants, 2 bytes only. In a DS assembler instruction, C-and-X type constants can have length specification to 65535. For G-type constants, or CU-type constants where the CU CCSID indicates a UTF-16 encoding, the length modifier must be a multiple of 2, and can be up to 65534 in a DS assembler instruction. GOFF only.

Table 2. Summary of constants (part 2 of 2)
Constant	Type	No. of Constants per Operand	Range for Exponents	Range for Scale	Truncation or Padding Side
Address	A	Multiple			Left
Binary	B	Multiple			Left
Character	C	One			Right
ASCII Character	CA	One			Right
Unicode Character	CU	One			Right
Floating Point Hex	D	Multiple	-85 to +75	0 to 13	Right¹
Floating Point Hex	DH	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	0 to 13	Right¹
Floating Point Binary	DB	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	N/A	Right¹
Floating Point Decimal	DD	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	N/A
Floating Point Hex	E	Multiple	-85 to +75	0 to 5	Right¹
Floating Point Hex	EH	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	0 to 5	Right¹
Floating Point Binary	EB	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	N/A	Right¹
Floating Point Decimal	ED	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	N/A
Fixed Point	F	Multiple	-85 to +75	-187 to +346	Left¹
Graphic (DBCS)	G	One			Right
Fixed Point	H	Multiple	-85 to +15	-187 to +346	Left¹
Length	J	Multiple			Left¹
Floating Point Hex	L	Multiple	-85 to +75	0 to 27	Right¹
Floating Point Hex	LH	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	0 to 27	Right¹
Floating Point Binary	LB	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	N/A	Right¹
Floating Point Decimal	LD	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	N/A
Floating Point Hex	LQ	Multiple	-2³¹ to 2³¹-1	0 to 28	Right¹
Decimal	P	Multiple			Left
Offset	Q	Multiple			Left
Address	R	Multiple			Left
Address	S	Multiple
Address	V	Multiple			Left
Hexadecimal	X	Multiple			Left
Address	Y	Multiple			Left
Decimal	Z	Multiple			Left
Notes: Errors are flagged if significant bits are truncated or if the value specified cannot be contained in the implicit length of the constant.