7.2.3.24 String Hexmate Option

The -string option will embed into the HEX file an ASCII string at a fixed address. The usage of this option is:
-string@Address[tCode]="Text"
where:
  • Address is assumed to be a hexadecimal value representing the address at which the string will be stored. Its interpretation is based on the addressing value (see 7.2.3.10 Addressing Hexmate Option).
  • Code is optional and allows a byte sequence to trail each byte in the string. This can allow the bytes of the string to be encoded within an instruction, for example.
  • Text is the string to convert to ASCII and embed.

Note that this option inserts data into the output HEX file, thus, to prevent a conflict, you must ensure that the locations where this data is to be placed are not already populated by other data from a HEX file or from another option.

For example:
-string@1000="My favorite string"
will store the ASCII data for the string, My favorite string (including the null character terminator), at address 0x1000, assuming an addressing value of 1.
And again:
-string@1000t34="My favorite string"
will store the same string, trailing every byte in the string with the HEX code 0x34, which would encapsulate the bytes into a retlw instruction if targeting a Mid-range PIC device, for example.