Ok. I found a program buried deep in other files from the beginning of the year that does what I want. I can’t really comment on the suggestions offered because I’m not an experienced spim or low level programmer.Here it is:
.text
.globl __start
__start:
la $a0,str1 #Load and print string asking for string
li $v0,4
syscall
li $v0,8 #take in input
la $a0, buffer #load byte space into address
li $a1, 20 # allot the byte space for string
move $t0,$a0 #save string to t0
syscall
la $a0,str2 #load and print "you wrote" string
li $v0,4
syscall
la $a0, buffer #reload byte space to primary address
move $a0,$t0 # primary address = t0 address (load pointer)
li $v0,4 # print string
syscall
li $v0,10 #end program
syscall
.data
buffer: .space 20
str1: .asciiz "Enter string(max 20 chars): "
str2: .asciiz "You wrote:\n"
###############################
#Output:
#Enter string(max 20 chars): qwerty 123
#You wrote:
#qwerty 123
#Enter string(max 20 chars): new world oreddeYou wrote:
# new world oredde //lol special character
###############################