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jal

Operands

id

Jump and link : Saves the return address (PC + 4) in $ra, then jumps to 'target'. The standard function-call instruction in MIPS. The called function returns with 'jr $ra'. Same address-range restriction as 'j'.

Variants

  • Jump and link : Saves the return address (PC + 4) in $ra, then jumps to 'target'. The standard function-call instruction in MIPS. The called function returns with 'jr $ra'. Same address-range restriction as 'j'. jal target
# jal calls a local routine and saves the return address in $ra. Inspect $t2: 1 after return.
jal routine
li $t2, 1
b done # Skip the routine after returning.
routine: li $t2, 2
jr $ra # Return to the instruction after the call.
done: