ICS312 SET 8

Flow Control Instructions

 Flow Control Instructions

Flow control, or branching, instructions for jumps, loops

and conditional jumps allow us to control the execution of
program statements and to build high-level programming
structures such as if-else statements, case statements,
and loops in assembler programs
 Jump Instructions (1)
 The unconditional jump instruction, branches to a new address in
the program code.
    JMP NEXT        ; jumps to address of "NEXT"

 Conditional jump instructions test the condition of one or two

FLAGS in the flags register, then "jump" to a new location in the
program based on the result of the test.

 Example:
TOP:
SUB AX, BX ;AX = AX - BX
JC EXIT: ;IF AX < BX then jump to EXIT
JMP TOP ;else, repeat until AX < BX
EXIT:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H
 Jump Instructions (2)
CMP Instruction 
The CMP instruction sets the flags the same as if a subtraction
had been performed, but the destination operand is NOT changed.
Example (simulating the LOOP instruction):
MOV CX, 5
TOP_2:
CMP CX, 0 ; CX = 0 ?
JE EXIT_: ; IF CX = 0, then EXIT_
SUB AX, BX ; AX = AX - BX
DEC CX
JMP TOP_2 ;else, repeat until CX = 0
EXIT_:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H

 Note: the above code simulates the effect of the LOOP instruction
 Signed versus Unsigned
Conditional Jumps
Note:In this course we will only make use of signed conditional jumps.

 Unsigned Conditional Jumps:  JA and JB

 Signed Conditional Jumps: JG or JL

Example 1. Will the JG instruction in the following code result in a jump?

MOV AL, 80h
MOV BL, 7FH
CMP AL, BL
JG EXIT_
...
Example 2. Will the JA instruction in the following code result in a jump?
MOV AL, 80h
MOV BL, 7FH
CMP AL, BL
JA EXIT_
...
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (1)
•IF-THEN-ELSE Structures

START:
MOV AH, 1
INT 21H ; input AL
CMP AL, 'Q' ; if AL = 'Q'
JE EXIT ; then, branch to EXIT
MOV AH, 2 ; else output AL
MOV DL, AL
INT 21H
JMP START ; repeat

EXIT:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (2)
•IF-THEN-ELSE
If AL ≤ BL, display BL
else display AL

CMP AL, BL ; AL ≤ BL?

JG ELSE_ ; no, go to "else"
MOV DL, BL ; display BL
JMP DISPLAY

ELSE_: ; else, AL > BL

MOV DL, AL ; display AL

DISPLAY: ; display result

MOV AH, 2
INT 21H
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (3)
•CASE Structure
MOV AH, 1
INT 21H
CMP AL, 'A'
JE CASE_A
CMP AL, 'B'
JE CASE_B
CMP AL, 'C'
JE CASE_C
CMP AL, 'D'
JE CASE_D

CASE_A:
; code for case A goes here
JMP NEXT_
CASE_B:
; code for case B goes here
JMP NEXT_
CASE_C:
; code for case C goes here
JMP NEXT_
CASE_D:
; code for case D goes here
NEXT_:
; code continues here
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (4)
•AND Conditions: Is AL >= 30H and <= 39H?
•I.e. is it the code for a decimal digit?

MOV AH, 1
INT 21H
CMP AL, 30H ; AL >= 30h?
JL ERROR ; no, error
CMP AL, 39H ; AL <= 39h?
JG ERROR ; no, error

... ; continue: AL >= 30h and AL <= 39h

ERROR:
... ; code for handling an error
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (5)
•OR Conditions Input until the character is Q or q.

START:
MOV AH, 1
INT 21H
CMP AL, 'Q'
JE EXIT_ ; if AL = 'Q', then exit
CMP AL, 'q'
JNE START ; if AL != 'Q' and AL != 'q', repeat input
EXIT_: ; if AL = 'Q' or AL = 'q'
MOV AX, 4COOH
INT 21H
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (6)
•FOR Loops
Input the value of AL.
For I = 1 to 10 output this value+I.

START:
MOV AH, 1
INT 21H
MOV CX, 10
TOP_:
JCXZ EXIT_ ; If CX = 0, exit
MOV DL, AL
MOV AH, 2
INT 21H
INC AL
LOOP TOP_ ; repeats for 10 times
EXIT_:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (7)
•WHILE Loops
input Al
while AL != ‘Q’
output AL
input Al
end while

START:
MOV AH, 1
INT 21H

CMP AL, 'Q'

JE EXIT_ ; repeat while AL != 'Q'
MOV DL, AL
MOV AH, 2
INT 21H
JMP start
EXIT_:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H
 Examples of Flow Control
Using Jump Instructions (8)
•REPEAT-UNTIL Loops
Set Dl to ‘A’
TOP: output DL
add 1 to DL
repeat top until DL = ‘[‘ (ascii code 5Bh)

MOV AH, 2
MOV DL, 'A'
TOP_:
INT 21H
INC DL
CMP DL, '['
JNE top_ ; repeat until DL = '['
EXIT_:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H
 Loop Instruction
 Used to implement "for loops" more conveniently than above.
 Decrements CX register and jumps to specified label as long as CX != 0 after being decremented.
 Example: Input a number, and display that number of asterisks

.586 ; required for MOVSX or MOVZX instructions

.CODE
START:
MOV DL, '*"
MOV AH, 1
INT 21H
SUB AL, 30H
MOVSX CX, AL ; sign extend into CX register
MOV AH, 2
TOP_:
INT 21H ; display asterisks
LOOP TOP_ ; repeats CX times
EXIT_:
MOV AX, 4C00H
INT 21H
 MOVSX Instruction

Move with sign extension. Copies a byte or word from a

source operand to a register, and sign extends into the

upper half of the destination. This is used to copy an 8-bit

or 16-bit operand into a larger destination.

JMP Instructions
 For signed arithmetic
J[N] {G | L | Z } [E]
eg: JG, JGE, JNZ, JLE

 For unsigned arithmetic

(not used in this course)
J[N] {A | B | Z } [E]
eg: JA, JAE, JNZ, JBE
 Example on JE
Count the number of characters entered which terminate in a CR (0DH),
don’t count CR. Use BL to store that number.

MOV BL, 0
REPEAT: MOV AH, 1
INT 21H
CMP AL, 0DH
JE OUT
INC BL
JMP REPEAT
OUT: …
 Example on JGE
To put the absolute value of AX into AX.

CMP AX, 0
JGE OUT ; jump if greater than or equal
NEG AX

OUT: …
 Example on JE & JL
If AX < 0, output – ; If AX = 0, output 0; If AX > 0, output +

CMP AX, 0
JE zerocase
JL lesscase
MOV DL, ‘+’
JMP display

zerocase: MOV DL, 0

JMP display
lesscase: MOV DL, ‘-’
display: MOV AH, 2
INT 21H
 Example on JCXZ
JCXZ – Jump if cx is zero, cx used as a counter

Assume that CX contains some number and you want to

Output this number of asterisks

JCXZ OUT
place: MOV AH, 2
MOV DL, ‘*’
INT 21H
LOOP place

OUT: …
 Textbook Reading (Jones):

Sections 5.1-5.4

Homework: Ex 5.1, p. 109, nos. 1-4

Ex 5.3, p. 115, no. 1