Intrinsic Data Types

MIPS defines various intrinsic data types, each of which describes a set of values that can be assigned to variables of the given type. Some examples of data declarations are as follows: 
                     .data
         str:        .asciiz    "Hello, World!"
         value1:     .word      0x100
         value2:     .byte      'A', 'B', 'C'
         finalVal:   .space     32
The MIPS intrinsic data types and their definitions are given below:

Type Definition Example
.ascii Assembles each string from the list into successive locations. value1: .ascii "xyz"
.asciiz Assembles each string in the list into successive locations and adds a null. Value2: .asciiz "xyz"
.byte Truncates the expressions from the comma-separated list to 8-bit values, and assembles the values in successive locations. _value3: .byte 0x10
.double Initializes memory to 64-bit floating point numbers. This directive automatically aligns its data and any preceding labels to a double-word boundary. $val: .double 3.14159
.float Initializes memory to single precision 32-bit floating point numbers. This directive automatically aligns its data and preceding labels to a word boundary. _6: .float 3.1
.half Truncates the expressions in the comma-separated list to 16-bit values and assembles the values in successive locations. This directive automatically aligns its data and preceding labels to a halfword boundary. _$.7: .half 0
.space Advances the location counter by the value of the specified expression bytes. The assembler fills the space with zeros. $_: .space 64
.word Truncates the expressions in the comma-separated list to 32-bits and assembles the values in successive locations. This directive automatically aligns its data and preceding labels to a word boundary. _.8: .word -100, 0x80




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