I tried before to post a shell script that contained a ` character as an answer on Stack Overflow. The parser insisted on treating the backtick as formatting instead of part of code.
How can I include it?
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5 Answers
If you do not want to use a pre-formatted block, there is still a way to do it inline.
From the “Code” section of the Markdown Documentation:
To include a literal backtick character within a code span, you can use multiple backticks as the opening and closing delimiters:
``There is a literal backtick (`) here.``
The above example renders like this (double quotes added): “There is a literal backtick (`) here.”
Also of note, you can add spaces to render an inline code segment that starts with and/or ends with backticks:
The backtick delimiters surrounding a code span may include spaces — one after the opening, one before the closing. This allows you to place literal backtick characters at the beginning or end of a code span:
A single backtick in a code span: `` ` `` A backtick-delimited string in a code span: `` `foo` ``
The above examples render like this (quotes added): “A single backtick in a code span: `” and “A backtick-delimited string in a code span: `foo`”.
This may be implementation specific, but it looks like you can use N backticks to delimit any inline sequence that does not itself contain a maximal subsequence of exactly N backticks. For example, you can use three backticks to delimit a sequence that does not contain triple backticks (single, double, quadruple, quintuple, etc. are okay though).
Three quoting one, two and four: ``` one: ` two: `` four: ```` ```
Two quoting one, three, and four: `` one: ` three: ``` four: ```` ``
One quoting two, three and four: ` two: `` three: ``` four: ```` `
Yields:
Three quoting one, two and four: one: ` two: `` four: ````
Two quoting one, three, and four: one: ` three: ``` four: ````
One quoting two, three and four: two: `` three: ``` four: ````
Finally, for comments:
Ah, in comments one does need to escape using a backslash? `\`yes\``.
answered Nov 22, 2010 at 4:27
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3Ah, you're right @Mark, using a unique number of multiple opening and closing backticks works in comments too nowadays:
``one ` or three ``` within double backticks``nicely yieldsone ` or three ``` within double backticks. But in comments, it still doesn't work when adding a space to the delimiters, to allow for a backtick at the start or end of the code. Like to get Perl's$`it seems one needs`$\``in comments, as`` $` ``yields `` $` ``.– ArjanDec 22, 2013 at 16:35 -
3(Screenshot of the above comment, for future reference, as comments are rendered on the fly. So: if the implementation is changed, the above comment might render differently some day in the future.)– ArjanDec 22, 2013 at 16:59
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Is a trailing backtick not possible? You can see that this does not get formatted: ```kill `pidof chrome```` Jan 17, 2015 at 23:48
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3@JonathonReinhart: Try putting a space between the trailing backtick and the closing backticks:
```kill `pidof chrome` ```Jan 18, 2015 at 4:38 -
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ChrisF's solution is the cleanest and easiest method, so I recommend using that whenever you can.
But if you find yourself needing it for inline code text and can tolerate needing to use <code> tags, its HTML entity `, demonstrated here: <code>this ` is a backtick</code> renders as this ` is a backtick.
answered Jun 30, 2010 at 12:03
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3This works, but only in answers, not in comments (where inline HTML is not supported). However (at least as of this writing), just use
`(backticks) directly inside<code>elements - no need to resort to HTML entities. Feb 26, 2015 at 16:26 -
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This worked flawlessy in WordPress, unlike double-backticks from the accepted answer.– JoeJun 26, 2016 at 23:39
Put the code on a separate line and indent by 4 characters.
Like ` this
answered Jun 30, 2010 at 11:15
To show a single backtick formatted as inline code, there are three options:
`` ` ``(Opening and closing the code section with 2 or more backticks)<code>`</code><code>`</code>
answered Aug 13, 2014 at 17:48
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None of this 3 solutions worked for me when writing a code inline with backticks as an answer. The only solution was to put it in a new line and indented as in meta.stackexchange.com/a/55439/779583 Oct 28, 2020 at 12:01
I needed to display the following on Stack Overflow: 
Using a double backtick to escape the entire sequence does not work:
``x```
I could almost get it to work by adding a space before the closing pair:
x`
but that wasn't quite right. I ended up using a <code> block:
x`
Also, as suggested by @Laurel, you can add spaces both before and after:
x`
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1I wonder if you can use spaces on either side: `` x` ``. (Apparently not in comments).– LaurelJan 6, 2022 at 13:42
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