Execute normal is inserting “<tab>” instead of hitting tab key

Question

I am trying to make a function that creates a new line and hits the tab key (aka 2 spaces / 4 spaces; what ever is set). I can do it easily with a keybinding:

:inoremap <leader>ind <esc>o<tab>

But when I try to execute this from a function:

function! Indent_New_Line()
  execute "normal! o<tab>"
endfunction

:inoremap <leader>ind <esc>:call Indent_New_Line()<cr>

the <tab> gets printed literally instead of a tab char:

|def foo
|<tab>
|end

Any ideas as to why this is happening? I couldn't find very much about this..

Any help is appreciated, Thanks!

Answer 1

All you need to do is to insert a \ before the <tab>

Now the code will look like this instead:

execute "normal! o\<tab>"