Markdown & YAML cheat sheet

Markdown

Paragraphs

Separate paragraphs with a blank line.

This is a paragraph of text.

And another paragraph of text.

# — Headings
- Start each heading with one or more hashes, followed by a space.
- ```
# Heading level 1
## Heading level 2
### Heading level 3
```
* — Italic
- Wrap the words in single asterisks.
- ```
Some of *these* words *are* italic.
```
** — Bold
- Wrap the words in double asterisks.
- ```
**Some** of these **words** are bold.
```
- — Unordered list
- Start each line with a dash and a space.
- Indent before the dash for nested lists.
- ```
- List item 1
- List item 2
  - Sub list item 1
```
1. — Ordered list
- Start each line with a number, period & space.
- Indent before the number for nested lists.
- ```
1. List item one
2. List item two
  1. Sub list item one
```

[]() — Link

[] — link text inside square brackets.
() — link URL inside round brackets.

[Dinosuars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs)

The [New Horizons](http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/) space probe took photos of Pluto.

![]() — Image
- Start with an exclamation point.
- [] — alt text inside square brackets.
- () — image URL inside round brackets.
- ```
![True colour composite of Pluto](true-colour-pluto.jpg)
```
--- — Horizontal rule
- Three consecutive dashes on a single line.
- ```
---
```
` — Inline code
- Surround code inside other text with single backticks.
- ```
The `<h1>` tag is the most important content on the page.
```
``` — Code block
- Start a line with three backticks to make a code block.
- End the code block with three more backticks on their own line.
- ```
```
  body {
    font-size: 100%;
  }
```
```
- Optionally specify the code language after the opening backticks.
- ```
```css
  body {
    font-size: 100%;
  }
```
```
- [ ] — Task list
- Non standard. Start a list and used square brackets with a space to denote a task.
- ```
- [ ] Read sci-fi
- [ ] Watch kaiju movie
```
- Put an “x” between the square brackets to mark it as complete.
- ```
- [ ] Read sci-fi
- [x] Watch kaiju movie
```

YAML

Always indent with two spaces.

term: value — Objects
- Start with a term, no spaces, followed by a colon and a space.
- ```
name: "Tyrannosaurus"
period: "Late Cretaceous"
```
- Indent to create nested objects.
- ```
dimensions:
  width: "3 metres"
  height: "8 metres"
```

- value — Arrays

Start with a dash, and a space.
```
- "Other dinosaurs"
- "Meat"
```
Arrays inside objects:

likes_to_eat:
  - "Other dinosaurs"
  - "Meat"

Objects inside arrays.

- name: "T. rex"
  period: "Late Cretaceous Period"

" — Escaping
- Surround text with quotes (double or single) to escape text.
- ```
name_meaning: "tyrant & lizard"
```
- In all the previous examples the quotes aren’t really necessary. But I find myself almost always adding them for clarity and to prevent myself from having to think about whether I need to escape them or not.

> — Folded text block

Start with a greater than, and indent the next lines.
The text will be collapsed into a single line when parsed.

desc: >
  Tyrannosaurus is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur.
  The species Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the most well-represented of the large theropods.

| — Wrapped text block
- Start with a vertical pipe, and indent the next lines.
- The text will keep its multiple lines when parsed.
- ```
poem: |
  T. rex, T.rex
  How I love thee
```
--- — Front matter
- YAML can be used at the top of Markdown documents to add more structured data.
- Surround the YAML with two lines of consecutive dashes.
- ```
---
name: "Venus"
discoverer: "Galileo Galilei"
---

*Venus* is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days.
```