Why I'm getting Invalid arguments for the function when using double-quotes?

Question

I'm trying to insert a filename into text as below:

:put=expand("%")

but I've the following errors:

E116: Invalid arguments for function expand(
E15: Invalid expression: expand(

Why this doesn't work?

What's most surprising thing is that it works when using single-quote instead, e.g.:

:put=expand('%')

So I'm trying to understand:

Is there any differences between using double-quotes or single-quotes? If so, what kind?

I'm using Vim v7.4.

For assign to variable you should use let keyword. let put=expand("%") — Alex Kroll, Oct 19, 2015 at 11:02
@romainl Yeh. If you exactly wont to put text into your buffer you should use function like :call append(line('.'), expand("%")) it put result of expand() line bellow cursor. — Alex Kroll, Oct 19, 2015 at 11:11
:put puts text from register like this :let @x=expand("%") | put x — Alex Kroll, Oct 19, 2015 at 11:16

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-17 09:46:33Z

5

From :help :put:

The register can also be = followed by an optional expression. The expression continues until the end of the command. You need to escape the | and " characters to prevent them from terminating the command.
For the difference between " and ' in the context of an expression, see :help expr-quote and :help expr-'.

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answered Oct 19, 2015 at 11:15

romainl

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