What is the difference between .word and .equ in MIPS?

Question

I think both do about the same: Variable declaration and initialization. Can you please elaborate?

Answer 1

.word allocates space and initializes the data. .equ defines a constant, but doesn't allocate any space for it.

So, for example, you might say:

one .equ 1  ; defines a constant called "one"
counter: .word one ; allocates space and initializes it with the value 1

The difference being that the .equ directive doesn't allocate any space in the compiled image.