Load current buffer in another pane

Question

I'm writing a plugin where I have several buffers open in split panes ( let's call them small panes ). The user can navigate between the small pane using the usual ctrl+w , wincmd etc ways. While I have another larger pane ( let's call it the large pane ), into which the buffer moved to should get automatically loaded. I have the following script to do this :

let g:current_buff=1
let g:loading_buffer=0

function! ActionOnWindowSwitch(...)
    if g:loading_buffer == 0
        let g:current_buff = bufnr("%")
        echo g:current_buff
        if g:current_buff != 1
            let g:loading_buffer=1
            :wincmd k
            :buffer g:current_buff
            :wincmd p
            let g:loading_buffer=0
        endif
    endif
endfunction

au BufEnter * call ActionOnWindowSwitch()

But when I run this, I get the error :

E94: No matching buffer for g:current_buff

I have verified by hardcoding the g:current_buff value that the script works in terms of loading the buffer etc. The problem seems mostly in variable substitution. Or that's what is my best guess. Any ideas how this can be fixed ?

Answer 1

You're correct in your diagnosis of the problem: no variable substitution is being performed. Try replacing the following line:

:buffer g:current_buf

with:

execute "buffer" g:current_buf

(As an aside, note also that the colon characters at the start of your :wincmd lines can also be removed.)

Generally, if you want the value of a variable to be used in a command-line command, you need to build the command as a string and then run it using :execute.