7.3.2 Minor Markdown Variations ↑

7.3.2.2 Heading Identification

John Gruber’s description of Markdown syntax leaves room for some ambiguity surrounding two questions concerning the use of one or more hash characters to indicate a heading:

1. Must a heading line be preceded by a blank line?

2. Must the string of hash characters be followed by a space, before beginning the text of the heading?

The Markdown Guide makes note of this ambiguity, and the resulting differences in interpretation among various Markdown parsers, but does not provide a definitive resolution for either question. (See Heading Best Practices.)

Notenik’s own parser answers the questions above in the following manner.

1. A blank line before a heading is recommended (for readability, if nothing else), but is not required.

2. A space after the last hash character is also recommended, but not required.

However, if there is no intervening space, and the first character following the only hash character is a digit, then the Notenik parser will assume that the author’s intent was for the hash character to be read as ‘number’, rather than triggering a heading.

For example:

#7 is a good bet in the next race.

But…

Number 7 is a good bet in the next race.

Also see the Tags Handling option for a potential modification to the handling of a leading hash character without a following space.