How to escape a '#' so it will NOT reference an issue in a GitHub comment?

Question

As opposed to reference an issue, I want to just output the text #5 without any link. How can I do that?

For example, a shader error message from Unity could contain # and a followed number:

Shader error in 'Nature/Terrain/Standard':
actual parameter #3 must be same type as formal out parameter ("weight")
actual parameter #4 must be same type as formal out parameter ("mixedDiffuse")
actual parameter #5 must be same type as formal out parameter ("mixedNormal")
too many parameters in function call at line 64 (on d3d9)

I have tried \#5 and #5 but they don't work: still linked.

The question doesn't focus on how to escape #, but #5, which will be translated to a link to another issue. That's unexpected.

Does this answer your question? Escape pound or number sign in Github issue tracker — ivan_pozdeev
– ivan_pozdeev, Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 4:48

shim · Accepted Answer · 2024-11-04 22:21:35Z

16

You could put an invisible character between the # and the number.

e.g.

#5 will be rendered as #5 on GitHub.

 being the unicode "zero width space" character.

EDIT: also #&NoBreak; is a very clean and easy to remember option; credit to this SO answer

edited Nov 4, 2024 at 22:21

answered Sep 23, 2018 at 6:11

shim

10.3k13 gold badges79 silver badges121 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

zwcloud Over a year ago

That's a clever idea! :D

mernst Over a year ago

An invisible character will be picked up by cut-and-paste, which is not desirable. An alternative is to write <span>#</span>5.

shim Over a year ago

You should add this as a separate answer

j_random_hacker Over a year ago

I think &NoBreak; is slightly clearer. Credit

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to escape a '#' so it will NOT reference an issue in a GitHub comment?

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Linked

Related