Assembly Language Help (alang.hlp) (Table of Contents; Topic list)
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Literal Character Operator (!)
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  Syntax:   !character
 
  See also: Logical NOT (!), Angle Brackets (<>), Quotation Marks ("/')
 
  Description:
 
     Treats <character> as a literal character rather than as an
     operator or a symbol. Used with special characters (<, >, ", ', %,
     ;, and comma) when the usual assembly language meaning of the
     character must be suppressed. A double exclamation point (!!) is
     treated as a single exclamation point. The escape character does
     not apply to strings in quotation marks or to backslashes at the
     end of a line.
 
     For example:
 
      <I!'m afraid I can!'t do that!!>   →   I'm afraid I can't do that!
      <20!% !> 15!%>                     →   20% > 15%
                                    -♦-