.AZ     Ascii string terminated by Zero

Syntax:

        .AZ  [-] string | #expression [,string | #expression [,...]]

See also:

.AS   .AT   .DA   .DB   .DL   .DR   .DW   .HS   .RF   .TS  

Function:

The .AZ directive converts ASCII strings and/or expressions to hexadecimal bytes. The last generated byte will be followed by one extra byte with the value of $00 to signal the end of the string. This can be used to signal the end of a character processing loop. Apart from this minor difference the .AZ directive works exactly the same as the .AS directive.

Boundary Sync:

In Version 3 of the SB-Assembler this directive will not perform a boundary sync.

Explanation:

The string parameter is a delimited string. The expression should evaluate to a positive number that is less than 256. The parameter can consist of more than one string and/or expression, which all should be separated from each other by commas.
All generated bytes will have bit b7=0 if the first character of the parameter is not a - sign, this is called positive ASCII. If the first character of the parameter is a - sign all generated bytes will have b7=1 except the trailing $00 byte, this is called negative ASCII.
The delimiters may not enclose an empty string. They should enclose at least one character.

Examples:

0000-54 65 73 74
0004-00                    .AZ  /Test/
0005-D4 E5 F3 F4
000A-00                    .AZ  -/Test/
000B-0D 54 65 73
000F-74 0A 0D 00           .AZ  #$0D,/Test/,#$0A,#$0D
0013-8D D4 E5 F3
0017-F4 8A 8D 00           .AZ  -#$0D,/Test/,#$0A,#$0D
001B-54 65 73 74
001F-0D 54 65 73
0023-74 00                 .AZ  /Test/,#$0D,\Test\