The literal-text string operator (< >) informs the assembler that the enclosed text should be treated as a single string rather than separate arguments. The syntax is

    < text >       

The text is treated as a single argument even if it contains parameter separators. Some typical parameter separators are commas, spaces, tabs, etc. The assembler removes the angle brackets and uses text as the argument.

Example: Modify the range_error macro defined before to inform the user of the correct range along with the error message.

range_error1 MACRO number, variable, range

err_msg&number DB "&variable: out of range", 0

range_msg&number DB "Correct range is &range", 0

ENDM

When we invoke this macro as

    range_error1    1, < Assignment mark >, < 0 to 25 >

the macro expansion will look like this

    err_msg1    DB  "Assignment mark: out of range", 0
    range_msg1  DB  "Correct range is 0 to 25", 0

This operator can also be used to force the assembler to treat a character literally by removing its default special meaning. For example, <;> passes ; as an argument without treating it as the comment operator. This can also be done using the literal-character operator, as will be seen next.