MIPS assembly parsing error when trying to assign a variable

Question

I am having problems with my MIPS assembly code. It shows a syntax error in li $t4, $zero line (4th line of the actual code). Could you help me solve it?

    .data

    .globl funcall1
    .globl funcall2


    .text

funcall1:   
        lw $t1, 0($a0) # load the 1st argument - shows how many there are
        addiu $t2, $t1, -1 #t2 stores how many args
        addiu $t3, $t2, -4 #t3 stores how many args there will be apart from 4 main
        li $t4, $zero
        addiu $sp, $sp, -24 # make stack frame
        bgezal $t3, SETSTACK 
        addiu $sp, $sp, $t4 # make stack frame
        sw $ra, 16($sp) # save where to return

        # 3:0xAAAA:0:12:0:7 format of FET


        lw $v0, 4($a0) # load the op-comand or value into the return value
        lw $s0, $a0 # save FET for future reference
        jal EXPRESSION
        bgezal $t3, ADDMOREARGS

        lw $a0, $s1 # return the first value to a0

        jal $t0

        lw $ra, 16($sp) # restore $ra
        addiu $sp, $sp, 24  # restore $sp

        jr $ra # return

funcall2:                   # main function in file
                        # Arguments $a0 is address of input FET

        jr $ra           # return

SETSTACK:   
        addiu $sp, $sp, -24 # make stack 
        sw $ra, 16($sp) # save where to return
        mul $t4, $t3, 4 # this is how many extra bytes wil be needed
        div $t4, 8
        bne $hi, 0, ADDFOUR # if size not divisible by 8, add 4.
        mul $t4, $t4, -1

        lw $ra, 16($sp) # restore $ra
        addiu $sp,$sp,24  # restore $sp

        jr $ra # return

ADDFOUR:
        addiu $sp, $sp, -24 # make stack 
        sw $ra, 16($sp) # save where to return
        addiu $t4, $t4, 4 # t4 += 4
        lw $ra, 16($sp) # restore $ra
        addiu $sp,$sp,24  # restore $sp

        jr $ra # return 

EXPRESSION: 
        addiu $sp, $sp, -24 # make stack 
        sw $ra, 16($sp) # save where to return

        lw $t0,  4($s0) # save the operand
        lw $s1, 12($s0) # free a0 for addmoreargs, save the first value in s1 as well
        lw $a0, 12($s0) # save first value in a0
        lw $a1, 20($s0) # second value
        lw $a2, 28($s0) # third value
        lw $a3, 32($s0) # fourth value

        la $s9, 40($s0) # save the rest of address
        lw $s8, 40($s0) # save the rest of data
        la $s7, $a3     # save the next place for an argument
        addiu $s7, $s7, -8

        lw $ra, 16($sp) # restore $ra
        addiu $sp,$sp,24  # restore $sp

        jr $ra # return


ADDMOREARGS:

        sw $s7, 4($s8)
        lw $s8, 8($s8) # jump thorugh the data
        addiu $t3, $t3, -1
        bgezal $t3, ADDMOREARGS

P.S. I know there could be some more problems with the code, I only started the debugging...

Answer 1

The purpose of li is to Load Immediates. $zero is a register, not an immediate. What you're looking for is probably move $t4,$zero.

There are other similar problems in your code. For example addiu $sp, $sp, $t4 (which seems unnecessary anyway since you've supposedly put zero in $t4).

Answer 2

$zero is a register, you can't use that with li which is load immediate. Either use li $t4, 0 or the move $t4, $zero pseudoinstruction.