Hexadecimal Numbers Must Begin With a Digit Between 0 and 9 (24958)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) 5.0
Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) 5.1
Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) 6.0
Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) 6.0a
Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) 6.0b

This article was previously published under Q24958

SUMMARY

With the Microsoft Macro Assembler, a hexadecimal number must begin with a digit between zero and nine. This is so that the assembler can distinguish between something that should be a number and something that should be a label.

MORE INFORMATION

Assembling the following code will result in the following errors, since the assembler will assume that ABh is a label

MASM 5.0, 5.1: error A2009: Symbol not defined: ABh
MASM 6.0: error A2006: undefined symbol: ABh

Sample Code

;Assemble options needed: none

   .model small
   .code

      mov ax, ABh

    end

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	10/20/2003
Keywords:	KB24958