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DW               Define Word                                   MASM Directive

  [name]    DW        initialvalue,,,

    Allocates and initializes one or more words (2 bytes) of storage.

    The initialvalue argument may be any of the following:

              *     integer (i.e.  1234)
              *     1 or 2 character string constant (i.e. 'gh')
              *     constant expression (i.e.  2 * 12)
              *     address expression  (i.e. arrayAddress)
              *     DUP operator (i.e. 10 dup (?))
              *     question mark (?) (i.e. 0,1,?,2)

       Notes:     The optional name argument causes the assembler to
                  create a variable whose offset value is equal to the
                  current location counter value.  The variable will be of
                  type WORD.

                  The ? causes the assembler to leave the initial value
                  undefined.  To specify more than 1 initial value,
                  separate them with commas.

                  String variables of type WORD must not consist of more
                  than 2 characters.  The last character is placed in the
                  low-order byte of the word, and the first character (if
                  there are 2 characters) or 0 (if only 1 character) is
                  placed in the high high-order byte.