The MASM Forum

Hello everyone.
I am trying to complete a project where I have to print a WORD array in a table format.
Here is how the array looks like:

NUMS WORD 09EEBh,0B0CFh,061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h
WORD 03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh


And here is my code:


TITLE MASM Template (main.asm)


INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data
NUMS WORD 09EEBh,0B0CFh,061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h
WORD 03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh
sep1 BYTE ", ",0

.code
main PROC
;call Clrscr
mov edi,OFFSET NUMS
mov ecx,LENGTHOF NUMS
mov ebx,TYPE NUMS
mov edx,OFFSET sep1 ;separator character

L1:
mov eax,[edi]
add edi, TYPE NUMS
call WriteHexB
call WriteString
loop L1

call Crlf
exit
main ENDP

END main


I am fairly new to this - every time I run it stops at the first line.
Here is the Run output http://pbrd.co/1hqUFL7 (http://pbrd.co/1hqUFL7)

Am I doing something wrong?

Thank you.
Adrian

Quote from: adrianvas12 on March 01, 2014, 07:17:33 AM
Am I doing something wrong?

Yes.

First things first: Welcome to the Forum :icon14:

Now to the 'bug': LENGTHOF NUMS refers to all elements labelled NUMS. Now the interesting question is where NUMS ends...

NUMS   WORD 09EEBh,0B0CFh,061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h
   WORD 03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh

The blue part is NUMS, the rest is just another data item.

NUMS   WORD 09EEBh,0B0CFh,061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h,
   03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh

Now we use the comma as line continuator, and suddenly both lines are NUMS.

jj2007 - thank you for your reply.
That indeed will solve part of the problem. The next task is to write that array as a table wit 7 rows and 9 columns. Just like I declared it.
How can I do that?

Quote from: adrianvas12 on March 01, 2014, 10:48:14 AM
jj2007 - thank you for your reply.
That indeed will solve part of the problem. The next task is to write that array as a table wit 7 rows and 9 columns. Just like I declared it.
How can I do that?

You need two loops - one inside the other. The inner loop processes nine numbers at a time (each number in a particular row). The outer loop processes each of the seven rows.

Quote from: Mark44 on March 02, 2014, 02:19:11 PM
You need two loops - one inside the other. The inner loop processes nine numbers at a time (each number in a particular row). The outer loop processes each of the seven rows.

Exactly. Adrian, you can take this snippet as pseudo code:

include \masm32\MasmBasic\MasmBasic.inc      ; download (http://masm32.com/board/index.php?topic=94.0)
  Init
  Dim MyR10() As REAL10    ; allocate a REAL10 array
  rows=30                  ; we want 30 rows and 3 columns
  cols=3
  push rows*cols
  xor ecx, ecx             ; start with element zero
  .Repeat
      ; put a random number into Real10 array, between -PI and +PI
      Rand(-3.14159265358979324, PI, MyR10(ecx))
      inc ecx
  .Until ecx>=[esp]        ; loop until ct is bigger than pushed max count
  pop eax                  ; correct the stack
  xor edi, edi             ; start with element zero
  For_ ebx=0 To rows-1
      Print Str$("Row %i", ebx+1)
      For_ ecx=0 To cols-1
            Print Str$("\t%If", MyR10(edi))      ; print three columns
            inc edi
      Next
      Print      ; newline for the next row
  Next
  Inkey "--- hit any key ---"
  Exit
end start

Hi adrianvas12,

I think Mark and Jochen didi help to solve your problem. Welcome to the forum.

Gunther

Thank you for your help !
I was able to print the table somehow - I have another question.

How will I sort this table? I will need to sort each row in ascending sequence.

Bubblesort would be easy to do.

jj207 - thank you for your suggestion.
I am really new to writing code for this - how will the actual code will look like? Do you have a sample from where I can replicate?

Quote from: adrianvas12 on March 04, 2014, 11:24:42 PM
I am really new to writing code for this - how will the actual code will look like? Do you have a sample from where I can replicate?

Sure, here it is. In case you want to understand what it does: google for bubblesort

include \masm32\include\masm32rt.inc

.data
NUMS   WORD 09EEBh,0B0CFh,061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h,
   03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh

.code
HexPrint proc arg
  mov eax, arg
  add eax, 4
  print eax, 13, 10
  ret
HexPrint endp

start:
  push lengthof NUMS-1
  mov esi, offset NUMS
  xor ebx, ebx             ; start with element zero
  .Repeat
mov ecx, ebx
.Repeat
mov ax, [esi+2*ebx]
.if ax>[esi+2*ecx]
push word ptr [esi+2*ecx]
mov [esi+2*ecx], ax
pop word ptr [esi+2*ebx]
.endif
inc ecx
.Until ecx>[esp]
      inc ebx
  .Until ebx>=[esp]
  pop eax
  .Repeat
lodsw
invoke HexPrint, hex$(eax)
dec ebx
  .Until Sign?
  inkey "--- OK? ---"
  exit
end start

Great - I am familiar with sorting algorithms but never coded one in assembly language though. Quick question please: what does the line


.Until Sign?


do? I mean I understand the until but is the Sign?

Thank you.

.Until the Sign? flag is set by the preceding dec ebx

Is Sign a variable?

Quote from: adrianvas12 on March 05, 2014, 12:46:30 AM
Is Sign a variable?

It's a flag.

Gunther

OK - what does it do? And finally please, what about the
inkey "--- OK? ---"? Is that just output? I am using Irvine32.lib and I did not see that command.
Usually we use call WriteString

hi Adrian

"inkey" is a masm32 macro
it displays the string provided, then waits for a keypress before continuing
if no string is provided, "Press any key to continue..." is used
it's often used so that the console window does not disappear before the user sees the result

Irvine32 does not have an exact match for that macro
but, it does have a similar function named WaitMsg
    call    WaitMsg

Sign?.....
in assembly language, decisions are often made by use of conditional branches
JE jump if equal
JA jump if above
and so on
they branch, based on the condition of various processor status flags

.until sign?
means that the loop is processed until the sign flag is set
the assembler actually generates code like this
    jns top_of_loop
jump if no sign to top of loop
when the sign flag is set, the branch is not taken and execution falls out of the loop

Hi,

   If you generate a listing of a program, you can see the code
that is produced by the .Until Sign construct.  If you see something
new, a listing may explain what it is by examining the actual code
and comparing it to the program text.

Regards,

Steve N.

Hello dedndave - the issue I think it is that the table I have is declared as an array

NUMS WORD 09EEBh, 0B0CFh, 061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h
     WORD 03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh

vs. what is provided in the code submited by jj2007

NUMS   WORD 09EEBh,0B0CFh,061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h,
   03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh


I also don't have the included library - all we have available is irvine (attached)

i have the Irvine32 library
which, it would seem you are missing a few include files that go with it
you should also have:
floatio.inc
graphwin.inc
macros.inc
smallwin.inc
virtualkeys.inc

the difference between what you and Jochen have is fairly simple
if you use the LENGTHOF or SIZEOF operator, Jochen's will account for the entire array
yours will only account for the elements in the first line

you can also do it this way
NUMS WORD 09EEBh, 0B0CFh, 061E5h, 089EDh, 0AF17h, 0D8D1h, 06C1Dh, 0594Eh, 0CF55h
     WORD 03767h, 063C6h, 0AE84h, 0412Fh, 0B226h, 046C1h, 0879Bh, 076B6h, 093FFh
NUMSEND EQU $
then, use (NUMSEND-NUMS) to get the size of the array in bytes
or (NUMSEND-NUMS)/WORD to get the number of elements

Jochen's method is simpler   :P

I will give it a try.
Well, THANK YOU everyone for your help!

Quote from: adrianvas12 on March 05, 2014, 01:07:47 AM
OK - what does it do?

I'm assuming that "it" here refers to the sign flag. The CPU has a register named FLAGS (more recently it's called EFLAGS). It has a variety of flags, such as ZF (zero flag), CF (carry flag), OF (overflow flag) and some others. SF, the sign flag, is bit 7. After certain instructions, the sign flag is set to the most significant bit of the result. For a signed integer, the most significant bit is 1 for a negative number, and 0 for a positive number.

In assembly programming branches and loops are usually controlled by one of the flags in the flags register.

Quote from: adrianvas12And finally please, what about the

Code Select Expand

inkey "--- OK? ---"? Is that just output? I am using Irvine32.lib and I did not see that command.
Usually we use

Code Select Expand

call WriteString

All that's happening here is that the string "---OK? ---" is being displayed. You can use whatever you're used to to do this.

EFLAGS

Conditional Branches

it is important to understand how different instructions affect the flags
mainly, the math and logic operations
some do not behave the way you might think - lol
but - it is one of the most important things to learn for assembly programming

there are also a few instructions that branch, based on whether or not CX/ECX is zero