Markdown Elements

The formatting elements specified by Markdown come in two basic types: there are block elements and inline elements.

Block elements include such things as paragraphs of text, code blocks, block quotes, lists, and tables. Headings and theme breaks (horizontal rules) are also thought of as block elements

Inline elements includes things like emphasis (italics) and strong emphasis (bold), links (URLs), images (image links), and code spans (inline code).

One way to keep this straight is that block elements may contain inline elements, but not the other way around.

Inline Examples

Some simple examples:

Markdown Output
*Emphasis* Emphasis
**Strong** emphasis Strong emphasis
`Code`span Code span
~~Strikethrough~~ Strikethrough
[URL](https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~hemken) URL
Autolinks <https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~hemken> Autolinks https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~hemken
Image ![](Graph.svg) Image

Pandoc extentions that do not work in flexmark or pegdown:

Markdown Output
Some~subscript~ Somesubscript
Some^superscript^ Somesuperscript

Math is not enabled by flexmark or pegdown by default, but can be enabled with the appropriate javascript in the document head.

Markdown Output
Math $y=x_1+x_2$ Math \(y=x_1+x_2\)

Block Elements

The various block elements - paragraphs, headings, lists, etc. - may be subdivided into two broad categories: atomic blocks, often called "leaf blocks", and container blocks, which can have other block elements nested within them.

Most block elements can include inline elements: the exceptions are theme breaks and code blocks.

Paragraphs, headers, theme breaks, code blocks, and tables are all atomic blocks - they do not contain nested blocks.

A paragraph is a continous block of text. It begins after another block element ends, or after a blank line (a blank line is often what marks the end of a block element). A paragraph often ends with a blank line, but may be interrupted by some other block elements.
This is a paragraph.

A header is a distinct block of text. These are marked either with hash marks ("#" and a space) or with dashes on the following line (either "-" or "="). There are six levels of hashed headers ("ATX" headers) or two levels of underscore headers ("Setext" headers). Setext headers must be preceded by a blank line, ATX headers may interrupt a paragraph (i.e. need not follow a blank line).

Markdown:

Header 2
--------
### Header 3

Output:

Header 2

Header 3

A theme break consists of three or more asterisks, underscores, or dashes, on a line by themselves. They may be interspersed with spaces. They usually require a preceding blank line, or they may be interpreted as header indicators or as emphasis.

Markdown:

***

A code block is a continuous block of text that is formated as <code>. Code blocks may be marked in two ways: by indenting the text four spaces, and with code fences. Code fences may include an information tag (often used to process the code) or not.

Markdown:

    indented code block
```
fenced code block
```

Output:

indented code block
fenced code block

A table (a "piped table") is marked with vertical bars between the cells, rows on separate lines, and a required header line (similar to underscore headers). While not a part of strict Markdown, they are available in all the Markdown flavors we use with Stata.

Markdown:

column 1 | column 2
---------|---------
value 1  | value 2

Output:

column 1 column 2
value 1 value 2

Block quotes and lists are container blocks, which may contain other block elements.

Block quotes are marked with a preceding right angle, ">" and a space.

> A block quote with a
> ##### header 4
> and a table
>
> column 1 | column 2
> ---------|---------
> value 1  | value 2

A block quote with a ##### header 4 and a table

column 1 column 2
value 1 value 2

Lists may be either unordered or ordered. Unordered lists are marked with a dash, and asterisk, or a plus followed by a space before each list item. Ordered lists begin each element with a numeral and a period, followed by a space.

List items can contain other blocks (not illustrated here).

Markdown:

- item 1
- item 2

1. item 1
2. item 2

Output:

  • item 1
  • item 2
  1. item 1
  2. item 2