MIPS .space directive

Question

how do I allocate an array in MIPS, of a size determined by the data in a register? pseudocode:

li $t0,30
.data
input_array:
.space $t0*4

everything I find about the .space directive indicates that it only takes an immediate value n.

Answer 1

In assembly program, you don't allocate anything, especially data structures. The data structures in assembly are how you use a block of memory. You can, of course, ask (allocate) more memory for your program from the OS (if you are not programming bare metal), but still it's just memory. The way you access it makes it an array.