Program flow control (Notes)

http://www.emu8086.com/assembler_tutorial/asm_tutorial_07.html

 

1. Unconditional Jumps

JMP label

It can jump anywhere in current cs (65,536bytes)

 

2. Short Conditional Jumps

(1) test single flag; (2) compare numbers as signed; (3) compares numbers as unsigned.

 

Jump instructions that test single flag 

Instruction	Description	Condition	Opposite Instruction
JZ , JE	Jump if Zero (Equal).	ZF = 1	JNZ, JNE
JC , JB, JNAE	Jump if Carry (Below, Not Above Equal).	CF = 1	JNC, JNB, JAE
JS	Jump if Sign.	SF = 1	JNS
JO	Jump if Overflow.	OF = 1	JNO
JPE, JP	Jump if Parity Even.	PF = 1	JPO
JNZ , JNE	Jump if Not Zero (Not Equal).	ZF = 0	JZ, JE
JNC , JNB, JAE	Jump if Not Carry (Not Below, Above Equal).	CF = 0	JC, JB, JNAE
JNS	Jump if Not Sign.	SF = 0	JS
JNO	Jump if Not Overflow.	OF = 0	JO
JPO, JNP	Jump if Parity Odd (No Parity).	PF = 0	JPE, JP

 

The instruction has only one byte to keep the offset, limited to pass control to -128bytes back or 127bytes forward-->short jump!

 

Jump instructions for signed numbers 

Instruction	Description	Condition	Opposite Instruction
JE , JZ	Jump if Equal (=). Jump if Zero.	ZF = 1	JNE, JNZ
JNE , JNZ	Jump if Not Equal (<>). Jump if Not Zero.	ZF = 0	JE, JZ
JG , JNLE	Jump if Greater (>). Jump if Not Less or Equal (not <=).	ZF = 0 and SF = OF	JNG, JLE
JL , JNGE	Jump if Less (<). Jump if Not Greater or Equal (not >=).	SF <> OF	JNL, JGE
JGE , JNL	Jump if Greater or Equal (>=). Jump if Not Less (not <).	SF = OF	JNGE, JL
JLE , JNG	Jump if Less or Equal (<=). Jump if Not Greater (not >).	ZF = 1 or SF <> OF	JNLE, JG

 

Jump instructions for unsigned numbers 

Instruction	Description	Condition	Opposite Instruction
JE , JZ	Jump if Equal (=). Jump if Zero.	ZF = 1	JNE, JNZ
JNE , JNZ	Jump if Not Equal (<>). Jump if Not Zero.	ZF = 0	JE, JZ
JA , JNBE	Jump if Above (>). Jump if Not Below or Equal (not <=).	CF = 0 and ZF = 0	JNA, JBE
JB , JNAE, JC	Jump if Below (<). Jump if Not Above or Equal (not >=). Jump if Carry.	CF = 1	JNB, JAE, JNC
JAE , JNB, JNC	Jump if Above or Equal (>=). Jump if Not Below (not <). Jump if Not Carry.	CF = 0	JNAE, JB
JBE , JNA	Jump if Below or Equal (<=). Jump if Not Above (not >).	CF = 1 or ZF = 1	JNBE, JA

 

CMP--compare numeric values, the same as SUB except that CMP does not keep the value

(CMP and SUB have the same affect on flags)

e.g.

A. compare 5 and 2:

CMP -->set ZF=0

SUB -->3 is stored in the first operand(REG or memory) and set ZF=0

B. compare 7 and 7:

CMP -->set ZF=1, then JZ or JE will do the jump

SUB -->0 is stored in the first operand and set ZF=1 

 

3. Loops

instruction	operation and jump condition	opposite instruction
LOOP	decrease cx, jump to label if cx not zero.	DEC CX and JCXZ
LOOPE	decrease cx, jump to label if cx not zero and equal (zf = 1).	LOOPNE
LOOPNE	decrease cx, jump to label if cx not zero and not equal (zf = 0).	LOOPE
LOOPNZ	decrease cx, jump to label if cx not zero and zf = 0.	LOOPZ
LOOPZ	decrease cx, jump to label if cx not zero and zf = 1.	LOOPNZ
JCXZ	jump to label if cx is zero.	OR CX, CX and JNZ

 

4.All conditional jumps have one big limitation, unlike JMP instruction they can only jump 127 bytes forward and 128 bytes backward.

(most instructions are assembled into 3 or more bytes)

AVOID using a cute trick:

(1) Get an opposite conditional jump instruction from the table above, make it jump to label_x.

(2) Use JMP to jump to desired location

(3) Define label_x: just after the JMP.

 

label_x: can be any valid name, but there must not be two or more labels with the same name.

 

example:

 

 

 

 

include "emu8086.inc"
org    100h
mov    al, 5
mov    bl, 5
cmp    al, bl     ; compare al - bl. 
; je equal        ; there is only 1 byte 
jne    not_equal  ; jump if al <> bl (zf = 0). 
jmp    equal

not_equal:
add    bl, al
sub    al, 10
xor    al, bl
jmp skip_data
db 256 dup(0)     ; 256 bytes 00000...00
skip_data:
putc   'n'        ; if it gets here, then al <> bl, 
jmp    stop       ; so print 'n', and jump to stop. 

equal:            ; if gets here, 
putc   'y'        ; then al = bl, so print 'y'. 

stop:

ret

-----------------------------------

 

(4) (rarely used) providing an immediate value instead of label.

When immediate value starts with $, relative jump is performed, otherwise compiler calculates instruction that jumps directly to given offset.

example:

 

org    100h
; unconditional jump forward: 
; skip over next 3 bytes + itself  
; the machine code of short jmp instruction takes 2 bytes.  
jmp $3+2
a db 3    ; 1 byte. 
b db 4    ; 1 byte. 
c db 4    ; 1 byte. 
; conditional jump back 5 bytes: 
mov bl,9
dec bl      ; 2 bytes. 
cmp bl, 0   ; 3 bytes. 
jne $-5     ; jump 5 bytes back 
ret