Defining and Referencing Variables and Constants in High Level Assembler Part I

Question & Answer

Question

What are the assembler DC/DS operands, and how do I use them?

Cause

HLASM provides assembler directives for defining variables and constants

Answer

Assembler programs reference storage areas during program execution. The storage areas may be defined within the scope of the application program code or be located elsewhere in memory. High Level Assembler (HLASM) provides two assembler directives which an assembler application programmer uses to define these storage areas: DC (Define Constant) and DS (Define Storage). The key difference being DC will initialize the storage area, DS will not.

The attached pdf explains some of the details of these two instructions and shows examples of using them.

Defining_Variables_and Constants.pdf

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Document Information

More support for:
High Level Assembler and Toolkit Feature

Software version:
1.6

Operating system(s):
z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE

Document number:
206223

Modified date:
02 August 2018

UID

swg21598281

IBM Support

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