Cannot escape a hash immediately before a number

[AJNeufeld]

Escaping the hash (#) does not work, when followed by digits.

I'd like to write about a transformer winding, specifically, winding number 1 or winding number 2.
Of course, writing ... transformer winding #1 is ... results in #1 being treated as an issue link to Issue #1, which (on this site) is "Github Flavored Markdown Examples", totally unrelated to power transformers. 😉

However, escaping the hash does not seem to be possible: \#1 still results in #1, the issue link.

Using HTML entities for the # or digits does not fool the Markdown parser into not seeing character sequence as an issue link:

• #1 results in the link GitHub Flavored Markdown Examples #1
• #1 also results in GitHub Flavored Markdown Examples #1

[chocolateboy]

A hacky workaround is to insert a zero width character between the hash and the number e.g. gulpjs\/gulp#​4.0 → gulpjs/gulp#​4.0.

Of course, if someone copies 'n' pastes this, they will wind up with an unexpected zero-width space in their text...

[jefersonchaves]

I know this is pretty old and perhaps not a top priority, but was there any update?

[AJNeufeld]

On our private gitlab server, Transformer \#1 no longer links to issue #1, so it seems to be fixed in some code bases and is no longer an issue for us personally, 👍

... but still seems to be an issue here on GitHub! 😆

[chipbite]

2024 says hello, this is still an issue, AFAICS. \#1 does not escape the hash - a reference to issue nr 1 is still created.
So no way to write e g #1 in plaintext in github markdown, AFAIK.

Or any other tips? The zero-width character workaround is not reasonable for my usage, I will simply put it in backtick/code blocks

[zachpoblete]

@chipbite <span>#</span>1 produces #1

Source

[chipbite]

@chipbite <span>#</span>1 produces #1

Source

Yeah, true, but I think that is just far too bloated. Backslash would be nice, as stated.