This part of the chapter describes the techniques and introduces the instructions that let you use symbolic addresses when referring to instructions and data. You can address code and data that is defined within the same source module, or code and data that is defined in another source module. Symbolic addresses are more meaningful and easier to use than the corresponding object code addresses required for machine instructions. The assembler can convert the symbolic addresses you specify into their object code form.

The z/Architecture architecture has two ways of resolving addresses in your program, depending on the machine instruction type:

• base displacement, where the address is computed by adding the displacement to the contents of a base register.
• relative immediate, where the address is computed by adding 2 × the signed immediate operand field to the instruction's address (refer to RI format and RSI format).