Assembler (TASM x64) arrays and elements - windows

Question

I have an array of nine names:
.model tiny
.data
vardas1 db "Rokas",0ah,'$'
vardas2 db "Tomas",0ah,'$'
vardas3 db "Matas",0ah,'$'
vardas4 db "Domas",0ah,'$'
vardas5 db "Augis",0ah,'$'
vardas6 db "Vofka",0ah,'$'
vardas7 db "Marka",0ah,'$'
vardas8 db "Auris",0ah,'$'
vardas9 db "Edvis",0ah,'$'
vardai dw offset vardas1, offset vardas2, offset vardas3, offset vardas4, offset vardas5, offset vardas6, offset vardas7, offset vardas8, offset vardas9
.code
org 100h
I need to read a digit from keyboard, and then I need to print that name. For example I will push 5, and console should write "Augis". BTW, second code block aren't all code, just loop that doesn't work
paieska:
mov dx, offset _comment1 ; Just string name asking user to input digit
mov ah, 9
int 21h
mov j, 00h ; Trying to input the digit from keyboard
mov ah, 01h
mov dl, 0ah
int 21h
mov bx, offset vardai ; Add array "names" to bx register
add bx, cx ; Add cx for indexing
mov dx, [bx] ; Add first array element to dx register
add cx, 2 ; Increasing cx by 2, because I'm using data word not data byte
mov ah, 9 ; Try to print it
int 21h
cmp cx, j ; Try to compare cx (index of array) to mine inputed digit "j"
jne paieska
je end

Answer 1

mov ah, 01h
mov dl, 0ah ;NO NEED FOR THIS - INT21/01 DOES NOT USE DL
int 21h
MOV AH, '1' ; MIN INPUT CHAR
mov bx, offset vardai ; Add array "names" to bx register WELL, ASSIGN ACTUALLY
MOV CX,2 ;NUMBER OF BYTES TO ADD (WORDS, NOT BYTES)
LOOPN:
mov dx, [bx] ; name-pointer array element to dx register
CMP AH,AL ; MATCHING char?
JE PNAME ; YES, PRINT NAME
add bx, cx ; Add cx=2 for next name
inc AH ; next possible character input
CMP AH,'9'+1 ; allowed is '1'..'9'
jne loopn ; in allowed range
; input not 1..9
mov dx, offset errormessage
PNAME:
mov ah, 9 ; Try to print it
int 21h
jmp end
Well, I tried to edit your approach with CAPS, but it became too complicated.
Essentially, you are reading a character from the keyboard using function 01. This character arrives in AL. If all goes well, it should be '1'..'9'. Notice these are the ASCII characters '1'..'9', that is hex 31..39
Next step is to set BX to the start of the table, AH to the minimum character you anticipate and CX to 2 because the table contains words, not bytes.
Now we have a loop. Load X from the table, and check whether AL is equal to AH. If the user input 1, these will be equal, so go print the string.
Otherwise, add 2 to BX to point to the next entry in the table (this could have been done by ADD BX,2 or INC BX INC BX which would mean the MOV CX,2 would be unnecessary - just the way I wrote it...) and increment the '1' in AH to '2'.
The end-condition for the loop is when AH gets incremented from '9' to - well, ':' or '9'+1. If it hasn't reached that end-condition, then run around the loop until all of the values '1'..'9' have been tested. If you haven't got to PNAME yet, then there's an error because the character input wasn't allowed, so point to an error message and then print it.
Now jumping to the end - probably you'd want to terminate the program, so you'd execute
MOV AH,4CH
INT 21H