in my .emacs I have:
(list "View" "yap %d" 'TeX-run-command nil t)

I wanna know how to modify the above lisp such that
yap /path/to/file will run as yap "/path/to/file

I need to add the " to the path but I am not familiar
with lisp that much.

Thanks.

Just escape the quotes with a backslash:

(list "View" "yap \"%d\"" 'TeX-run-command nil t)

Actually, I have tried to use \" but it did not help.
So I was thinking maybe I got it wrong somewhere.
The reason I posted this thread was:

I am using emacs+miktex to edit latex file.
When I try to preview dvi file using yap (included in miktex)
by "C-c C-v" within emacs, I could not open the dvi file.
It was because in Windows, there are path names containing "space",
such as "My Documents". But in command line, if I use
yap "My Documents\a.dvi, then it worked.

So I am thinking how to pass that " to the path name.
Thanks.

What if I want to replace all space in path name with " "?

try it like this
"yap '%d'"
or
"yap `%d`"

see if that will work

unfortunately, neither works.

No such file or directory: c:\'%d.dvi
No such file or directory: c:\`%d`.dvi

And I even tried to move everything (emacs, miktex, and .dvi)
to c:\GNU which does not have space in its path name.
Now the problem is the yap window only starts after I close emacs.
But if in emacs I use M-! then type yap a.dvi, then no matter
where a.dvi locates, I can always open a.dvi.
Should "M-! yap a.dvi" and "M-x shell" + "shell command line: yap a.dvi"
be so much different?

Maybe we should figure out how to use global key
to make "C-c C-v" equal to "M-! yap filename"
BTW, how to implement this in emacs? I don't know
how to obtain the current file/buffer name.

I wonder if the problem is the use of backslashes on windows? (Incidentally, an emacs or TeX or Miktex forum might be more appropriate place for this question)

try the following to see if I'm right...

paste this into *scratch* (or your .emacs)

(defun yap-current-file()
(interactive)
(shell-command
(concat "yap " (replace-regexp-in-string "/" "\\\\\\\\" (buffer-file-name)) " &") "*yap output*" "*yap output*"))

put your cursor after it and C-x e

then change to the buffer you want to view and
M-x yap-current-file

Sorry. That should have been C-x C-e

thanks very much! your code almost worked.
Some changes need to be made:
1. this is important, at the beginning of path name, put a ", o/w
yap still tried to open Documents.dvi if the absolute path is
Documents and Settings\blah\blah
2. need to replace .tex to .dvi which was missing

Anyway, many thanks to your code, really helped.
Now I feel accomplished something