Self-defining terms represent machine language binary values and are absolute terms. Their values do not change upon program relocation. Here are some examples of self-defining terms and the binary values they represent:

The assembler carries the values represented by self-defining terms to 4 bytes or 32 bits, the high-order bit of which is the sign bit. (A '1' in the sign bit indicates a negative value; a '0' indicates a positive value.)

The use of a self-defining term is distinct from the use of data constants or literals. When you use a self-defining term in a machine instruction statement, its value is used to determine the binary value that is assembled into the instruction. When a data constant is referred to or a literal is specified in the operand of an instruction, its address is assembled into the instruction. Self-defining terms are always right-aligned. Truncation or padding with zeros, if necessary, occurs on the left.