nested loop in 8086 assembly language - loops

Question

I am having problem on how exactly should i use loop to get the desire output in this program,
What i want to do is to take input any number from the user and then sort that number in descending order,
I tried my best here to explain every step of the code in the comment.
here is my code,
STSEG SEGMENT
DB 64 DUP(?)
STSEG ENDS
DTSEG SEGMENT
SNAME DB 24 DUP("$")
DTSEG ENDS
CDSEG SEGMENT
MAIN PROC
ASSUME CS:CDSEG, DS:DTSEG, SS:STSEG
MOV AX,DTSEG
MOV DS,AX
MOV ES, AX ;ES:DI
MOV DX, OFFSET STRNG1
MOV AH,09
INT 21H
XOR DX,DX
MOV BYTE PTR SNAME, 40
MOV DX, OFFSET SNAME
MOV AH, 0AH
INT 21H
PUSH DX ;Hold the input number in a stack until we clear the screen and set the cursor
; The clear screen and cursor position code is here which i didn't really mention.
;What we need to do now is to compare first number to each other number and store the greatest
of two on first position.
MOV BX,DX ;Copy un-sorted number to BX,
MOV AX,BX[1] ;the length of the number which is stored on the first position of the string
XOR AH,AH ;Empty AH
MOV CL,AL ;MOVE AL into CL for looping 6 times
SUB CL,1
MOV SI,02H ;the number is stored in string array from the 2nd position
;Suppose the input number is the following,
;[6][3][9][1][8][2][6]
;this is how it should work,
; Loop 6 times , CX = 6
[7][6][3][9][1][8][2][6] ; 7 is length of the number which is already copied in CX above.
; but we need 6 iterations this is why we subtract 1 from CL above.
; 6 > 3 ?
; Yes, then BX[SI] = 6 and BX[SI+1] = 3
; 6 > 9 ?
; NO, then BX[SI] = 9 and BX[SI+2] = 6
; 9 > 1
; Yes, then BX[SI] = 9 and BX[SI+3] = 1
; 9 > 8
; Yes, then BX[SI] = 9 and BX[SI+4] = 8
; 9 > 2
; Yes, then BX[SI] = 9 and BX[SI+5] = 2
; 9 > 6
; Yes, then BX[SI] = 9 and BX[SI+6] = 6
; After first iteration the incomplete sorted number is,
;[9][3][6][1][8][2][6]
;Similarly here i need to loop 5 times now by comparing the 2nd number which is a 3 with all ;the number after it and then loop 4 times then 3 times then two times and then 1 time.
L1:
;Loop 1 must iterate 6 time for the supposed input number,
;but i couldn't be able to write the proper code as i always get out of registers. kindly help me out
L2:
LOOP L2
Loop L1
Kindly help me with the nested loop where i've stucked.

Answer 1

The loop instruction uses the cx register.
So you must either preserve cx for the outer loop with e.g. push cx (before L2:) and pop cx (after loop L2):
mov cx,5
L1:
push cx
mov cx,6
L2:
. . . do stuff inner
loop L2
pop cx
. . . do stuff outer
loop L1
or remember that loop is roughly equal to dec cx jnz, so do e.g.
mov dx,5
L1:
mov cx,6
L2:
... do stuf inner
loop L2
.. do stuff outer
dec dx
jnz L1
Possible off-by-one errors are intended and meant as an exercise for the reader :-)