I'm working on a mips program that will run on pcspim and i need a little help. The description of the program is: Write a program that reads a string (from a keyboard), stores it in the memory, and computes and prints the frequency of each character; and then it reverses the string and prints the reversed string.
so far i have is...
.data # Data declaration section
userString: .space 256
Prompt: .asciiz "\nEnter a word: "
newLine: .asciiz "\n"
.text
main: # Start of code section
li $v0, 4
la $a0, Prompt
syscall
li $v0, 8
la $a0, userString
li $a1, 256
syscall
jr $ra
la $a0, userString
move $t0, $a0
lb $t1, 0($t0)
li $v0, 4
move $a0, $t1
syscall # prints first letter of word
Right now i just wanted to see if i've actually stored the input into the userString array. So at the end i tried to print out the first letter. but it doesnt seem to be printing anything.
Any suggestion?
thank.
I've broken your code down into three parts: prompting, input, display. I assume the first two parts were given to you and the third is what you are focusing on right now. I'll explain what the first to parts are doing then explain what the third is doing right now and what you probably want it to do at this point.
.data # Data declaration section
userString: .space 256
Prompt: .asciiz "\nEnter a word: "
newLine: .asciiz "\n"
.text
# Part I
main: # Start of code section
li $v0, 4
la $a0, Prompt
syscall
# Part II
li $v0, 8
la $a0, userString
li $a1, 256
syscall
jr $ra
# Part III
la $a0, userString
move $t0, $a0
lb $t1, 0($t0)
li $v0, 4
move $a0, $t1
syscall # prints first letter of word
Part I
This is pretty straightforward, when we start executing the program counter will be set to the address of the main label. It loads the value 4 into $v0 (that seems to be the print string system call number), and then loads the address of the Prompt string into the first argument register $a0. The last bit just performs the system call that puts the string on the screen.
Part II
Now that the "Enter a word: " string has been printed on screen, we want to actually read what the user is typing. It looks like here we're using system call #8 (probably read string), so we load that value into $v0 in preparation for the syscall. Then, since we want to read the user string into userString, we load the address of that label into $a0 (the first argument for the read string function) then, since we are savvy programmers, we give the upper bound of how many bytes userString can hold (256) in $a1. Then we perform the system call, you type in a string at the keyboard and hit enter and we return to the next line of code.
That line is jr $ra, which means "jump to the location stored in register $ra (return address)". You probably don't want this, because it marks the end of the main function and likely you program exits back to the command line at this point, probably best to remove it.
Part III
Again, you're loading the address of userString into $a0 (and also moving it into $t0 in the next line). Now it gets weird, you load the first byte 0($t0) of userString into $t1. This is a ASCII character value (like 72 or something). Then you start up the system call stuff again with the print string system call (#4) and the argument of $t1. Which you think will print the first letter of the word, which I disagree with. Here's why. If the user types the string, "Hello, world!" this is what it looks like in memory:
userString: H e l l o , w o r l d !
offset: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
So, loading 0($t0) moves the letter H into register $t1, then when you perform the system call it tries to print the string starting at H to the screen. However, there is not a string starting at letter H, it starts at the address of userString. So if you just move the address of userString into register $a0, then do system call #4 it should print userString to the screen.
#mjshultz
i've changed it up a little. Didnt think i needed 2 loops. Also i've increment it by four because i thought each character is 4 bytes so to go to the next letter i need to increment the offset by four.
.data # Data declaration section
userString: .space 256
Prompt: .asciiz "\nEnter a word: "
newSpace: .asciiz " "
newLine: .asciiz "\n"
.text
main: # Start of code section
li $v0, 4
la $a0, Prompt
syscall
la $a0, userString
li $a1, 256
li $v0, 8
syscall
la $a0, userString
move $s0, $a0
loop:
lb $t1, 0($s0)
li $v0, 1
move $a0, $t1
syscall
li $v0, 4
la $a0, newSpace
syscall
addi $s0, $s0, 4
blt $s0, 256, loop
Related
For a project, I need to allocate space for an array of half-words which is supplied by the user. Thus far, I have:
.data
get_size: .asciiz "Enter array size: "
myArray: .space $s0
.text
li $v0, 4
la $a0, get_size
syscall # Print get size message
li $v0, 5
syscall # Put array size into $v0
mul $s0, $v0, 2 # Multiply $v0 by element size to reserve memory space
However, this throws an error at the myArray .space $s0 line. Whenever I hardcode in a value after .space the program works fine, but I specially need to calculate the space to allocate based on whatever the user give me.
im a newbie in MIPS and still scratching some basic commands, currently i bumped into a very strange situation, where i have 2 identical code but one runs, and the other doesnt.
This is the code that throw an exception when running at line sw $v0, input:
.data
Text_output1: .asciiz "Input number 1: "
input: .word
.text
main:
li $v0, 4
la $a0, Text_output1
syscall
li $v0, 5
syscall
sw $v0, input
li $v0, 1
lw $a0, input
add $a0, $a0, 1
syscall
This is the normal functioning one:
# Program: Hello, World!
.data
# data declaration section; specifies values to be stored
# in memory and labels whereby the values are accessed
Greeting: .asciiz "\nghfhgfhgf\n"
Text_output1: .asciiz "Number 1 : "
input: .word
.text # Start of code section
main: # Execution begins at label "main"
li $v0, 4 #in ra number 1 :
la $a0, Text_output1
syscall
li $v0, 5
syscall
sw $v0, input
li $v0, 1
lw $a0, input
add $a0, $a0, 1
syscall
I cannot see any difference between the twos, or is there something i dont know about this language?
Btw im using MARS 4.5 with JDK 13. Thank you so much.
If you're writing any MIPS assembly, you should get the official instruction set reference (MIPS32™ Architecture For Programmers
Volume II: The MIPS32™ Instruction Set).
For the sw instruction it states the following:
Restrictions:
The effective address must be naturally-aligned. If either of the 2 least-significant bits of the address is non-zero, an
Address Error exception occurs.
As the simulator clearly states, you have an sw instruction at address 0x0040001c that tries to write to address 0x10010011, which is not a word-aligned address.
Your second example happens to work out of pure luck, because your two strings occupy 24 bytes of memory, so the input label ends up 24 bytes from the start of the .data section, which is a word-aligned address.
To ensure proper alignment, use the .align directive, e.g.:
.align 2
input: .word 0
Also note the 0 after .word. If you leave out the initial value and just write .word you will run into problems if you add more variables (they will all get the same address).
My code comes up with Unsupported R-Type, how do I make it subtract correctly. Tried changing other details within.... Already tried using subu...............................................................................................
.data
str: .asciiz "\nHello World!\n"
# You can change what is between the quotes if you like
.text
.globl main
main:
# Do the addition
# For this, we first need to put the values
# to add into registers ($t0 and $t1)
li $t0, 30 # You can change the 10
li $t1, 20 # You can change the 20
# Now we can add the values in $t0
# and $t1, putting the result in special register $a0
sub $a0, $t0, $t1
# Set up for printing the value in $a0.
# A 1 in $v0 means we want to print an int
li $v0, 1
# The system call looks at what is in $v0
# and $a0, and knows to print what is in $a0
syscall
# Now we want to print Hello World
# So we load the (address of the) string into $a0
la $a0, str
# And put a 4 in $v0 to mean print a string
li $v0, 4
# And just like before syscall looks at
# $v0 and $a0 and knows to print the string
syscall
# Nicely end the program
li $v0, 0
jr $ra
Your program runs fine in the mars and spim simulators except for program termination. These simulators don't set up $ra, so it's zero. So, at the end, you're returning to something that may have semi-random instructions, including an illegal one. Thus, it's not your sub at all that is the problem. It's what happens later.
Change:
# Nicely end the program
li $v0, 0
jr $ra
Into:
# Nicely end the program
li $v0, 10
syscall
I'm trying to design a basic calculator with MIPS. I promt the user for the first operand, the operator, and then the second operand. I get and store the first operand, but after the user enters the operator the prompt for the second operand appears on the same line, immediately after the user's input. Here's a sample of what I mean:
Enter first number: 8
Select operator: -Enter second number: 3
Result: 5
-- program is finished running (dropped off bottom) --
The "Enter second number" was printed right after the minus sign. I use read string, with length of string = 2 to get the operator. Here's the relevant code for that:
GetOperator:
la $a0, prompt2 #Load prompt 2
add $v0, $zero, 4 #Load syscall 4
syscall
la $a0, operator
add $a1, $zero, 2
add $v0, $zero, 8 #Load syscall 8
syscall #Store the input string to memory
jr $ra
"operator" is a .word variable I declared under .data. I then use a syscall 4 to print the next prompt. I think there's just some subtle thing going on here that I'm missing. I'm still quite new with MIPS, so any pointers would be awesome.
You could print a carriage return / linefeed sequence before the "Enter second number" string.
# 13=carriage return, 10=linefeed, 0=null terminator
CRLF: .byte 13,10,0
Use syscall 4 to print it.
I am trying to compute the length of a string given by a user. Every time I try to run the code, I get the message "Exception occurred at PC=(a certain address) followed by the message :"Bad address in Data/stack read: (another address). I know that it has something to do with the stack but I can't figure out the problem. The code in MIPS is bello and I am using QtSpim. Your help will be very appreciated.
sentence: .space 6
Prompt: .asciiz "Enter the sentence. Max 6 characters, plus a terminator .\n"
.text # Start of code section
main: # The prompt is displayed.
li $v0, 4 # system call code for printing string = 4
la $a0, Prompt # load address of string to be printed into $a0
syscall # call operating system to perform operation;
# $v0 specifies the system function called;
# syscall takes $v0 (and opt arguments)
##read the string, plus a terminator, into the sentence
la $t0, sentence
li $t0, 6
li $v0, 8
add $v0, $zero, $zero #initialize length to zero
loop:
lbu $s0, 0($t0) #load one character of string
addi $t0,$t0,1 #point to next character
addi $v0,$v0,1 #increment length by 1
bne $s0,$zero, loop #repeat if not null yet
end_loop:
addi $v0, $v0, -1 #don't count the null terminator
li $v0, 4 #display the actual length
syscall
exit: #exit the program
li $v0, 10
syscall
##read the string, plus a terminator, into the sentence
la $t0, sentence
li $t0, 6
Here you're loading the address of sentence into $t0, and then immediately overwrite $t0 with the value 6. This is probably the root cause of the exception, since the following lbu will attempt to read from address 0x00000006. I suggest that you remove the li.
li $v0, 8
add $v0, $zero, $zero #initialize length to zero
This li is pointless since you're setting $v0 to zero on the very next line, so this li can also be removed.
sentence: .space 6
Prompt: .asciiz "Enter the sentence. Max 6 characters, plus a terminator .\n"
You say that the user is allowed to enter up to 6 characters. But you only allocate space for 6 bytes, meaning that the NULL terminator wouldn't fit if the user actually enters 6 characters.