GNU Info

(nasm.info)Section 2.2.3

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2.2.3. NASM Doesn't Store Variable Types
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   NASM, by design, chooses not to remember the types of variables you
declare. Whereas MASM will remember, on seeing `var dw 0', that you
declared `var' as a word-size variable, and will then be able to fill
in the ambiguity in the size of the instruction `mov var,2', NASM will
deliberately remember nothing about the symbol `var' except where it
begins, and so you must explicitly code `mov word [var],2'.

   For this reason, NASM doesn't support the `LODS', `MOVS', `STOS',
`SCAS', `CMPS', `INS', or `OUTS' instructions, but only supports the
forms such as `LODSB', `MOVSW', and `SCASD', which explicitly specify
the size of the components of the strings being manipulated.