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A string is a collection of values stored in contiguous memory locations. Strings are usually arrays of bytes, words, or (on 80386 and later processors) double words. The 80x86 microprocessor family supports several instructions specifically designed to cope with strings. This chapter explores some of the uses of these string instructions. The 80x86 CPUs can process three types of strings: byte strings, word strings, and double word strings. They can move strings, compare strings, search for a specific value within a string, initialize a string to a fixed value, and do other primitive operations on strings. The 80x86's string instructions are also useful for manipulating arrays, tables, and records. You can easily assign or compare such data structures using the string instructions. Using string instructions may speed up your array manipulation code considerably.
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