.DATA            Define Data Segment                                Directive

  .DATA

     The .DATA directive is used to start the definition of a data
     segment. All statements that follow are considered part of the data
     segment. You end the definition of the data segment with another
     segment directive (such as .CODE) or an END directive, which
     indicates the end of the file.

     Before you use .DATA, you must have defined a memory model with the
     .MODEL directive.

     The advantage of .DATA is that the data segment's name is translated
     into the standard data segment name for that memory model when the
     file is assembled, which makes it easy to link into high-level
     languages.