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How to show "||" operator in a Markdown table?

I'm trying to show || in a GitHub readme page, but these | are used for creating columns in the table. How can I use this || so it doesn't mean a column?

op dec
&& AND
OR

I tried \ before the | character, but it still didn't work.

Solution

  • You need an escaping backslash (\) before each pipe character (any un-escaped pipe would be treated as part of the table), like so:

    | Operator | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| &&       | AND         |
| \|\|     | OR          |

    Result:

    Operator Description
    && AND
    || OR

    Although I'd suggest marking them with inline code blocks:

    Markdown:

    | Operator | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| `&&`     | AND         |
| `\|\|`   | OR          |

    (It looks wrong on StackOverflow, but works correctly with GitHub's parser.)