[github] How to add empty spaces into MD markdown readme on GitHub?

I'm struggling to add empty spaces before the string starts to make my GitHub README.md looks something like this:

enter image description here

Right now it looks like this:

enter image description here

I tried adding <br /> tag to fix the new string start, now it works, but I don't understand how to add spaces before the string starts without changing everything to &nbsp;. Maybe there's a more elegant way to format it?

This question is related to github formatting markdown

The answer is


Markdown gets converted into HTML/XHMTL.

John Gruber created the Markdown language in 2004 in collaboration with Aaron Swartz on the syntax, with the goal of enabling people to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, and optionally convert it to structurally valid HTML (or XHTML).

HTML is completely based on using &nbsp; for adding extra spaces if it doesn't externally define/use JavaScript or CSS for elements.

Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax. It is designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name.


If you want to use »

  1. only one space » either use &nbsp; or just hit Spacebar (2nd one is good choice in this case)

  2. more than one space » use &nbsp;+space (for 2 consecutive spaces)


eg. If you want to add 10 spaces contiguously then you should use

&nbsp;   &nbsp;   &nbsp;   &nbsp;   &nbsp;  

&nbsp;space&nbsp;space&nbsp;space&nbsp;space&nbsp;space

instead of using 10 &nbsp; one after one as the below one

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;


For more details check

  1. Adding multiple spaces between text in Markdown,
  2. How to create extra space in HTML or web page.

After different tries, I end up to a solution since most markdown interpreter support Math environment. The following adds one white space :

$~$

And here ten:

$~~~~~~~~~~~$

I'm surprised no one mentioned the HTML entities &ensp; and &emsp; which produce horizontal white space equivalent to the characters n and m, respectively. If you want to accumulate horizontal white space quickly, those are more efficient than &nbsp;.

  1. no space
  2.  &nbsp;
  3. &ensp;
  4. &emsp;

Along with <space> and &thinsp;, these are the five entities HTML provides for horizontal white space.

Note that except for &nbsp;, all entities allow breaking. Whatever text surrounds them will wrap to a new line if it would otherwise extend beyond the container boundary. With &nbsp; it would wrap to a new line as a block even if the text before &nbsp; could fit on the previous line.

Depending on your use case, that may be desired or undesired. For me, unless I'm dealing with things like names (John&nbsp;Doe), addresses or references (see eq.&nbsp;5), breaking as a block is usually undesired.


Markdown really changes everything to html and html collapses spaces so you really can't do anything about it. You have to use the &nbsp; for it. A funny example here that I'm writing in markdown and I'll use couple of         here.

Above there are some &nbsp; without backticks


You can use <pre> to display all spaces & blanks you have typed. E.g.:

<pre>
hello, this is
   just an     example
....
</pre>

As a workaround, you can use a code block to render the code literally. Just surround your text with triple backticks ```. It will look like this:

2018-07-20 Wrote this answer Can format it without &nbsp; Also don't need <br /> for new line

Note that using <pre> and <code> you get slightly different behaviour: &nbsp and <br /> will be parsed rather than inserted literally.

<pre>:

2018-07-20 Wrote this answer
           Can format it without  
    Also don't need 
for new line

<code>: 2018-07-20 Wrote this answer Can format it without   Also don't need
for new line


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