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Comments on Why doesn't \$ work?

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Why doesn't \$ work?

+6
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Why isn't $1 rendering?

Both \$1 and $\$$1 failed!

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You need to use \\$, like this: \$1.

The reason is that MathJax is interpreted in the browser, while Markdown is interpreted in the server.

If you write \$, then Markdown sees the backslash and therefore puts the dollar sign literally into the output (which it would have done anyway), without the slash. That's what is served to the browser, where MathJax then sees it as starting math content.

If you write \\$, then Markdown sees the first backslash as escaping the second backslash, therefore the output contains \$. This gets sent to the browser where MathJax then interprets the single backslash as taking the dollar sign literally instead of interpreting it as starting or ending math content.

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1 comment thread

Thanks. Can you pls elaborate why this hitch doesn't happen on Stack Exchange, as far as I know? (2 comments)
Thanks. Can you pls elaborate why this hitch doesn't happen on Stack Exchange, as far as I know?
DNB‭ wrote about 2 years ago

Thanks. Can you pls elaborate why this hitch doesn't happen on Stack Exchange, as far as I know?

celtschk‭ wrote about 2 years ago

The Markdown interpreter on StackExchange is sufficiently aware of MathJax syntax to avoid such things. QPixel's interpreter unfortunately isn't. The dollar sign is just one instance of that problem; also inside MathJax formulas, the backslash often needs to be doubled here.

See e.g. here for another example.