Relative addressing is the technique of addressing instructions and data areas by designating their location in relation to the location counter or to some symbolic location. This type of addressing is always in bytes—never in bits, words, or instructions. Thus, the expression *+4 specifies an address that is 4 bytes greater than the current value of the location counter. In the sequence of instructions in the following example, the location of the CR machine instruction can be expressed in two ways, ALPHA+2, or BETA-4, because all the machine instructions in the example are for 2 byte instructions.

ALPHA    LR              3,4
         CR              4,6
         BCR             1,14
BETA     AR              2,3