as: Strings
3.6.1.1 Strings
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A "string" is written between double-quotes. It may contain
double-quotes or null characters. The way to get special characters
into a string is to "escape" these characters: precede them with a
backslash '\' character. For example '\\' represents one backslash: the
first '\' is an escape which tells 'as' to interpret the second
character literally as a backslash (which prevents 'as' from recognizing
the second '\' as an escape character). The complete list of escapes
follows.
'\b'
Mnemonic for backspace; for ASCII this is octal code 010.
'backslash-f'
Mnemonic for FormFeed; for ASCII this is octal code 014.
'\n'
Mnemonic for newline; for ASCII this is octal code 012.
'\r'
Mnemonic for carriage-Return; for ASCII this is octal code 015.
'\t'
Mnemonic for horizontal Tab; for ASCII this is octal code 011.
'\ DIGIT DIGIT DIGIT'
An octal character code. The numeric code is 3 octal digits. For
compatibility with other Unix systems, 8 and 9 are accepted as
digits: for example, '\008' has the value 010, and '\009' the value
011.
'\x HEX-DIGITS...'
A hex character code. All trailing hex digits are combined.
Either upper or lower case 'x' works.
'\\'
Represents one '\' character.
'\"'
Represents one '"' character. Needed in strings to represent this
character, because an unescaped '"' would end the string.
'\ ANYTHING-ELSE'
Any other character when escaped by '\' gives a warning, but
assembles as if the '\' was not present. The idea is that if you
used an escape sequence you clearly didn't want the literal
interpretation of the following character. However 'as' has no
other interpretation, so 'as' knows it is giving you the wrong code
and warns you of the fact.
Which characters are escapable, and what those escapes represent,
varies widely among assemblers. The current set is what we think the
BSD 4.2 assembler recognizes, and is a subset of what most C compilers
recognize. If you are in doubt, do not use an escape sequence.
Info Catalog
as: Characters
as: Chars