title: x86 assembly equ vs =
body: <p>I am taking a class in x86 assembly language and it's starting to move rather fast. There is one thing that the book keeps doing without mentioning how it works, and that is using the equ and = operators when defining data.</p>
  
  <p>So it seems like equ is used to define constants, but is = the same thing? If I had some code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>.data
     count = 100            ; Is this a constant? Of what data type is this?
     array WORD count DUP(?)
     x_param EQU [EBP + 8]  ; Is this a constant?
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am asking because until now we have defined data by declaring it's type, but how does it work when there is no type declared (like count = 100)</p>
  
  <p>I've been googling and searching forums about these operators for the past few days (Spring break), and I cannot come up with anything, so I figure I should ask myself.</p>
  
  <p><em>EDIT</em>
  I am using the x86 MASM assembler</p>