Difference between JE/JNE and JZ/JNZ

JE and JZ are just different names for exactly the same thing: a conditional jump when ZF (the “zero” flag) is equal to 1.

(Similarly, JNE and JNZ are just different names for a conditional jump when ZF is equal to 0.)

You could use them interchangeably, but you should use them depending on what you are doing:

  • JZ/JNZ are more appropriate when you are explicitly testing for something being equal to zero:dec ecx jz counter_is_now_zero
  • JE and JNE are more appropriate after a CMP instruction:cmp edx, 42 je the_answer_is_42 (A CMP instruction performs a subtraction, and throws the value of the result away, while keeping the flags; which is why you get ZF=1 when the operands are equal and ZF=0 when they’re not.)

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