6.3. Tags

A tag is an identifier that does not have an associated value or attribute and cannot be used in expressions. Tags that are 1-32 characters in length are used to identify the following types of information:

• Macro instructions

• Micro character strings

• Conditional sequences

• Duplicated sequences

The first character must be one of the following:

• Alphabetic character (A through Z or a through z)

• Dollar sign ($)

• Percent sign (%)

• At sign (@)

• Underscore character (_)

Characters 2-32 can also be decimal digits (0 through 9).

Tags that are 1-255 characters in length can be used to identify the following types of information:

• Program modules

• Sections

The first character must be one of the valid tag characters or the underscore (_) character. Characters 2-255 can also be decimal digits (0 through 9).

Different types of tags do not conflict with each other or with symbols. For example, a micro can have the same tag as a macro, and a program module can have the same tag as a section.

Examples of valid and not valid tags:

Valid		Comment
count		Lowercase is permitted
@ADD		@ legal beginning character
_SUBTRACT		_ beginning character and 9 characters are legal
ABCDE465		Combinations of letters and digits are legal if the first character is legal

Not valid		Comment
9knt		Begins with a numeric character
Y+Z3		Contains an illegal character
+YZ3		Begins with +

The underscore character (_) also is used as the concatenation character (see Section 6.10). Usually the assembler edits this character out of a source line. To insert this character into a long name, either disable editing or use the predefined concatenation micro ($CNC). To disable editing, use either the invocation statement or the EDIT pseudo instruction.