Markdown is a lightweight markup language, mostly used for writing readmes. Each platform supporting Markdown usually adds its own flavors to it. GitHub is no exception, just recently adding support for writing mathematical formulae.
This is a GitHub-flavored Markdown cheatsheet focusing on less-known features.1
- Headings
- Alternate Headings
- Paragraphs
- Line Breaks
- Emphasis
- Inline Code
- Code Block
- Code Block with Syntax Highlighting
- Blockquotes
- Ordered Lists
- Unordered Lists
- Task Lists
- Horizontal Line
- URLs and Email Addresses
- Links
- Images
- Subscript and Superscript
- Mathematics
- Tables
- Emojis
- HTML
- Comments
- References
Similar to HTML, there are 6 headings in Markdown:
# H1
## H2
### H3
#### H4
##### H5
###### H6Try to use heading level 1 for the title of your document, h2 for the sections, h3 for subsections, and so on.
There is an alternate way of creating headings that only supports two levels:
Heading Level 1
===============
Heading Level 2
---------------Paragraphs are chunks of text separated by at least a blank line:
This is paragraph 1.
This is paragraph 2.Line break is less know to the Markdown world.
It is achieved by adding at least two spaces to the end of the line:
This is line 1.
This is line 2.It's less known, because it's invisible. But, try it out.
There are three ways to emphasize:
- Bold
- Italic
- Bold and italic
Making bold can be done by double underscores or double asterisks:
This is __bold__, so is **this**.But inside a word, only the asterisks work:
**Thi**s **i**s a **GitH**ub-**flavor**ed **Markdo**wn **cheatshe**et **focusi**ng **o**n **les**s-**kno**wn **featur**es.To make italic, use one underscore or one asterisk, and again, inside a middle only the asterisk syntax works:
This is _italic_, so is *this*. And it's not *un*important.And to make something bold and italic, one can mix the two syntaxes:
All of these are: ***bandi***, _**bandi**_, **_bandi_**, __*bandi*__, *__bandi__*, ___bandi___.
And inside the word: b***and***i which means bold***and***italic.To write code in monospace font inside a regular text, enclose it in backticks:
This is `code` inside text.If you want to write a code that has backticks in it, you can use double-backticks:
This is the syntax: ``This is `code` inside a text.``To create a code block, put four lines or a tab before it:
This is the code:
for i in range(10):
passThe alternative syntax is wrapping the code in three backticks.
This is the code:
```
for i in range(10):
pass
```To display triple backticks in a code block, wrap them inside quadruple backticks.
The alternative syntax is wrapping the code in three backticks.
````
This is the code:
```
for i in range(10):
pass
```
````To display triple and quadruple backticks inside a code block, wrap them inside quadruple backticks and put a zero-width non-joiner inside the quadruple backticks you want to display.
To create a code block with syntax highlighting, you can use the three backtick syntax and write the language name in front of it:
This is the code:
```python
for i in range(10):
pass
```As of now, some 583 languages are being supported for syntax highlighting. You can access the full list here.
Blockquotes are designated by a > in front of them:
> Veniet tempus quo ista quae nunc latent in lucem dies extrahat et longioris aevi diligentia.Use double > to create nested blockquotes.
Georg Cantor quoted:
Veniet tempus quo ista quae nunc latent in lucem dies extrahat et longioris aevi diligentia.
To create an ordered list:
1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third itemThe number can be out of order:
1. First item (indexed 1)
1. Second item (indexed 1)
5. Third item (indexed 5)Markdown still fixes the counters and outputs the correct numbers:
- First item (indexed 1)
- Second item (indexed 1)
- Third item (indexed 5)
To create unordered lists, use any of the following "bullet characters": hyphen -, asterisk *, or plus sign +:
- Item
- Another item
- Yet another itemOne can mix the bullet characters in one list, but it's a bad practice.
A task list (aka checklist or todo list) is an unordered list with each item having a checkbox in front, either checked or unchecked. Tasks lists are very useful when writing issues on GitHub, as one can then check or uncheck them without manually editing the Markdown source of the comment or description.
- [x] Write the tests
- [ ] Implement the functions
- [ ] Fix the code formattingOutput:
- Write the tests
- Implement the functions
- Fix the code formatting
To create a horizontal line, use three or more asterisks (***), hyphens (---), or underscores (___):
Some text!
---
Next chapter or something!To turn URLs and email addresses into links, just wrap them into angle brackets:
Take a look at my Medium posts: <https://aerabi.medium.com>
You can also email me at <[email protected]>To create a link, enclose the linked text in brackets and then immediately the URL in parentheses:
Take a look at my [Medium posts](https://aerabi.medium.com/).You can also add a title to the link that shows as a tooltip:
Take a look at my [Medium posts](https://aerabi.medium.com/ "Git Weekly is published there!").Take a look at my Medium posts.
Image syntax is similar to that of links, only it has an exclamation mark in front and the text is the alt text:
One might want to write about H2O or BatmanTM.
One might want to write about H<sub>2</sub>O or Batman<sup>TM</sup>.Onث can write LaTeX-style mathematical formulae in GitHub-flavored Markdown now:
I know why $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$. And I also know that:
$$ \frac{G}{\mathrm{Ker}(\phi)} \cong \mathrm{Im}(\phi). $$I know why
Tables are cool:
| Tables | Are | Cool |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 3 is | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is | centered | $12 |
| zebra stripes | are neat | $1 |Emojis can be written by using colons, hurray! 🎉
Emojis can be written by using colons, hurray! :tada:Emojipedia has the GitHub shortcodes for emojis, e.g. 🏖️ Beach with Umbrella.
One can use HTML tags in Markdown as well.
One can use <b>HTML</b> tags in Markdown as well.To hide contents in a Markdown document, one can use the HTML comment syntax:
<!-- This is comment and won't be rendered! -->- Markdown Guide > Basic Syntax
- Markdown Guide > Markdown Cheat Sheet
- GitHub Docs > Basic Writing and Formatting Syntax
- GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec
- Adam Pritchard, "Markdown Cheatsheet"
- The GitHub Blog > Math Support in Markdown
Footnotes
-
Here I made the words half bold. It showcases two things: 1. Making texts bold in the middle of the word. 2. Markdown footnotes. It is known that making the words half bold makes it easier and faster for your mind to read it. It's called bionic reading. ↩