FIX: DUP Operator Must Be Preceded by White Space (106403)

The information in this article applies to:

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

This article was previously published under Q106403

SYMPTOMS

The DUP operator must be preceded by white space. The number of items and the DUP operator must be separated by spaces or tabs. In MASM 6.0, no error message is given, but space for only one data item is allocated if the white space is missing. MASM 6.1 and later issue the error message:

error A2206: missing operator in expression

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MASM versions 6.0x. The problem was corrected in MASM 6.1.

Sample Code

; Assemble options needed: /Fl
; View the listing file to see the error in MASM 6.0 for data item b

.MODEL SMALL
.STACK

.DATA
a        db 4 dup(0)
size_a   db SIZEOF a
b        db 4dup(?)    ; A2206 here in MASM 6.1
size_b   db SIZEOF b

.CODE
start:
   mov   ax,4C00H
   int   21H    ;Terminate Process
END start

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	10/13/2003
Keywords:	kbfix KB106403