Article ID: 24953
Article Last Modified on 10/17/2003
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Macro Assembler 1.25
- Microsoft Macro Assembler 1.27
- Microsoft Macro Assembler 4.0
- Microsoft Macro Assembler 4.0
- Microsoft Macro Assembler 5.0
- Microsoft Macro Assembler 5.1 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q24953
SUMMARY
Phase errors indicate that a relative address of a label changed between pass 1 and pass 2 of the assembly process. They usually are caused by improper forward references to labels. During pass 1, the assembler will have to make assumptions (e.g. it might assume a near jump during pass 1 if the location of a label is not known). During pass 2, the assembler may have to change those assumptions (e.g. now it knows that the jump is to a far label). If this involves changing the size of an instruction, that difference can cause a phase error.
To examine the assumptions made by the assembler on pass 1, use the /D option to get a pass 1 listing.
MORE INFORMATION
Phase errors can usually be prevented by using segment overrides or explicit type specification, as shown in the following examples:
jmp dword ptr far_label ;jump to far label
mov ax, word ptr label
Additional query words: 1.25 1.27 3.0x 4.00 5.00 5.10
Keywords: KB24953
