How to Escape a Pipe (|) in a Markdown Table

Which escape works where

| Choice      | Meaning                 |
| :---------- | :---------------------- |
| Yes \| No   | Either answer is valid   |
| A | B  | Same result with an entity |

Why a pipe splits the cell even inside backticks

The GFM spec splits each table row into cells on unescaped pipes before it parses the inline content of the cells. At that point it doesn't know about code spans, links or math, so a | inside backticks ends the cell just like any other. The spec's own example shows the fix: a \| inside a code span becomes a literal pipe, because the table extension removes the backslash when it builds the cell.

This differs from the rest of Markdown, where a backslash inside a code span is always shown as typed. It is the one place a backslash escape works inside code.

How do I escape a pipe inside a code span?

Escape each pipe with a backslash inside the backticks. Shell pipelines, logical OR and bitwise operators all work the same way:

| Command                      | What it does              |
| :--------------------------- | :------------------------ |
| `ps aux \| grep node`        | Find running Node processes |
| `cat app.log \| wc -l`       | Count log lines           |
| `a \|\| b`                    | Logical OR                |

Some editors warn you about this. JetBrains IDEs, for example, include a Markdown inspection for pipes in code spans inside tables. The table formatter keeps \| intact when it realigns the columns.

Regex alternation (OR) in a table

Regular expressions are where unescaped pipes bite most, because alternation uses |. Escape each one; readers see the normal regex.

| Pattern                | Matches                  |
| :--------------------- | :----------------------- |
| `^(cat\|dog)s?$`        | cat, cats, dog, dogs     |
| `\.(jpe?g\|png\|gif)$` | Image file extensions    |

The Markdown backslash disappears, so the rendered (cat|dog) is an alternation, as intended. A regex that needs a literal pipe (\| in regex terms) is the hard case: in a code span you would have to write a backslash right before an escaped pipe, and \\| splits the cell (see the double backslash pitfall). Write it as HTML, <code>\\&#124;</code>, which renders \|, or move the pattern into a code block under the table.

Pipes in links and Obsidian wikilinks

A pipe in link text needs the same escape. Obsidian wikilinks with an alias use a pipe as the separator, so inside a table write [[Note\|Alias]]; Obsidian's own help documents this.

| Page                                        | Note        |
| :------------------------------------------ | :---------- |
| [Guide \| API](https://example.com/guide)  | Escaped pipe in link text |
| [[Project plan\|Plan]]                      | Obsidian wikilink alias   |

In a URL, don't escape the pipe with a backslash; percent-encode it as %7C. That is valid in every URL and never splits the cell.

HTML entities and the <code> fallback

HTML character references are decoded after the row is split, so they never start a cell. Use them in plain text, or inside an HTML <code> element if a renderer shows the backslash in Markdown code spans:

| Method                      | Renders as |
| :-------------------------- | :--------- |
| <code>a&#124;b</code>        | HTML code element with an entity |
| x &vert; y                   | Named entity in plain text       |

Inside <code>…</code> a raw | still splits the cell, because the splitter doesn't know about HTML tags either. Write the entity there.

Pipes in headers, math and converted data

• Header cells follow the same rule. A header such as Input | Output must be written Input \| Output, or the header gains a column and no longer matches the delimiter row, so the whole table stops rendering.
• Math. Absolute values and norms in $…$ contain pipes too. Write \vert (or \lvert x \rvert) inside the math instead of |; the math in tables guide has examples.
• Converted data. CSV, Excel or SQL output often contains pipes (shell commands, enum lists like draft|live). The CSV to Markdown converter and the other converters on this site escape every pipe as \|, including pipes inside backticks, so paste the data there instead of escaping by hand.
• Other flavors. MultiMarkdown, Pandoc pipe tables and kramdown also accept \| in plain text. Their handling of pipes inside code spans may differ from GFM, so preview anything that mixes the two.

Pipe escaping by platform

Common mistakes (broken vs. fixed)

Relying on backticks

| Command                | Purpose             |
| ---------------------- | ------------------- |
| `ps aux | grep node`   | Find Node processes |

| Command                 | Purpose             |
| ----------------------- | ------------------- |
| `ps aux \| grep node`   | Find Node processes |

Using &#124; inside backticks

| Pattern          | Matches     |
| ---------------- | ----------- |
| `(cat|dog)` | cat or dog  |

Escaping the backslash instead of the pipe

\\| is an escaped backslash followed by a bare pipe, so the cell still splits. You can't show a backslash directly before a pipe with \| alone; write \\| (an escaped backslash, then the entity) instead.

| Pattern | Note |
| ------- | ---- |
| a \\| b  | Backslash escaped instead of the pipe |

A cell that ends in a backslash

Windows paths and similar values can end with \. If no space separates it from the next pipe, the backslash escapes that pipe and two cells merge. Add a space or double the backslash. The table generator doubles a trailing backslash for you.

| Path       | Type      |
| ---------- | --------- |
| C:\Temp\| folder    |

| Path       | Type      |
| ---------- | --------- |
| C:\Temp\\ | folder    |

Unescaped pipes in plain text usually show up as rows with more cells than the header. The table validator reports those rows with their line numbers.

When escaping gets unreadable

A table full of \| is hard to read and hard to edit. When the cells hold long commands or patterns, give each one a short label in the table and put the real code in a fenced code block below it, where pipes need no escaping:

| Step | Command        |
| ---- | -------------- |
| 1    | See "Filter logs" below |

### Filter logs

```sh
journalctl -u app | grep -E "ERROR|WARN" | tail -n 50
```

An HTML table with <code>…&#124;…</code> is the other option when you can't trust a renderer's handling of \|. For other cell content, see text formatting in tables and line breaks, or go back to the Markdown table syntax overview.

Frequently asked questions