Execute the contents of a register

Question

Let's say I have the following text which I highlight:

s/ /","/g

And then I yank it into the a register:

"ay

How do I then run those commands? I thought doing @a would execute those commands, but it seems to just 'paste' in the text of the command. How would this be done?

Answer 1

The normal mode command @a will execute the contents of register "a in normal mode, as if they were a mapping.

To instead execute the contents of "a as an ex command, use the ex command, :@a.

See :help :@ for more details, and note that, in versions of Vim prior to 8.2.0997, line continuations in the register will not work when executing code in this way.