Long-Parameter and Short-Parameter Instructions

Many instructions that take an integer or an unsigned integer as a parameter have two forms. The long-parameter (original) form requires a 4-byte integer, and the short-parameter form, recognized by the suffix .s, requires a 1-byte integer. Short-parameter instructions are used when the value of the parameter is in the range -128 through 127 for signed parameters and in the range 0 through 255 for unsigned parameters. The long-parameter form of an instruction can also be used for parameters within these ranges, but it leads to unnecessary bloating of the IL code.

Instructions that take a metadata token as a parameter don’t have short forms: metadata tokens are always used in the IL stream in uncompressed and uncoded form, as 4-byte unsigned integers.

The byte order of the integers embedded in the IL stream must be little endian—that is, the least significant byte comes first.