>Sorry, I was not very accurate in my description of the problem. This occurs when I am trying to use the '&' or the () operators to copy the file. For example
>x=drive and directory for the windows system folder
>y=drive and directory for a file
>a=x+'\xxx xxxx.xxx'
>copy file &a to somewhere or copy file (a) to somewhere gives me errors. I tried putting the file name in the format '\'+'"'+'xxx xxxx.xxx'+'"' but that did not help. Perhaps there is some other format?

You're getting the different methods of expanding or representing files mixed up.

cFrom = x + "\xxx xxxx.xxx"
cTo = x + "\other folder\new name.xyz"
COPY FILE (cFrom) TO (cTo)

should work just fine. But don't use single letter variable names, especially A-J, and M, as that's the old xBase reference to the first 10 work areas and memory variables.