Which Markdown formatting should be used for a filename of code?

Question

I often want to write filenames for code.

Normally I write like this:

Filename

string = "This is example code"

Is this okay? Is there a standard Stack Overflow way of Markdown formatting for writing a filename?

Answer 1

This is ok if you write it the way you shown (the filename on one line, then on other lines code following). But if you have something like this:

In my viewcontroller.h I have:

some code there

I personally would like to see it as

In my viewcontroller.h I have:

some code there

Answer 2

Update

Since July 2021 (apparently) the previous method no longer works. Here's a new method based on tag stripping:

<h5 a><strong><code>hello_world.js</code></strong></h5>

``` js
alert("Hello world!");
```

Here the <h5 a> tag gets stripped leaving its content "naked". Note that an attribute in <h5 a> tag and a blank line after it are required!

Original answer

You can make a very nice-looking named code block using small headers and inline code, like so:

#### **`hello_world.js`**
``` js
alert("Hello world!");
```

hello_world.js

alert("Hello world!");

I've accidentally found it in this post on Formatting Sandbox and just don't want this great trick to get lost there as I was unsuccessfully looking for this some time before.

---

Though not as good as above, you could also specify a file name via language-specific comment before your code:

# hello_world.sh
echo "Hello world!"

Answer 3

I'd never thought about it until seeing nicael's answer, but I kind of like "quoting the file".

test.bat

@echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set argument1=!%1!
echo %argument1%>test.txt

---

file2.bat

@echo off
echo %~1

Answer 4

After pounding my own head against my desk (and many others' desks) from wondering about this four years ago, I'm now writing all my Markdown with files as code because...

1. We indeed need to know when we are working with code-related things or with ideas outside of code; files are part of code.
2. In Unix & Linux, everything is a file.

• If it is Unix/Linux code, then it is already a file.
• Nearly all commands in Unix & Linux are actually files anyway (except cd and a few others).
• There really isn't a difference between Unix/Linux files and commands except execution permissions.
• If an executable command file is written with code, then all other non-executable files should also.

3. Files outside code get messed-up with underscore (_), which many files have in their names.

• Markdown renders more than one underscore _ as an italics-string (literally _italics-string_ in Markdown).
• This never causes a problem if file names are in backticks.

Answer 5

I tend to do something like:

requirements.txt:

elasticsearch==7.0.0
elasticsearch-dsl==7.0.0

Answer 6

Bolding is fine, though I think that the header markup you've used may be a little too forceful. Large text could help, though, if you had a lot of (hopefully small!) snippets in your post. I'm not sure we need a standard for this: use what makes your post most easily read and understood.

I will say, however, that code markup is definitely not the proper choice. The name of a file is not an element of a program; marking it as such is semantically incorrect.