$                Location Counter Operand                        MASM Operand
 
  $
 
    This special symbol represents the current location counter. The
    location counter is the current offset within the current segment
    during assembly.
 
       Notes:     This operand has the same attributes as a near label.
 
                  The location counter is an address that is incremented
                  to reflect the current address as each statement in the
                  source file is assembled.
 
  -------------------------------- Example ---------------------------------
 
           helpMessage    DB   'This is help for the program'
           helpLength     =    $ - helpMessage
 
    After these 2 lines are assembled, the symbol 'helpLength' will be
    equal to the length of the help message.