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How to escape a '#' so it will NOT reference an issue in a GitHub comment?

As opposed to reference an issue, I want to just output the text #5 without any link. How can I do that?

For example, a shader error message from Unity could contain # and a followed number:

Shader error in 'Nature/Terrain/Standard':
actual parameter #3 must be same type as formal out parameter ("weight")
actual parameter #4 must be same type as formal out parameter ("mixedDiffuse")
actual parameter #5 must be same type as formal out parameter ("mixedNormal")
too many parameters in function call at line 64 (on d3d9)

I have tried \#5 and #5 but they don't work: still linked.

The question doesn't focus on how to escape #, but #5, which will be translated to a link to another issue. That's unexpected.

Solution

  • You could put an invisible character between the # and the number.

    e.g.

    #​5 will be rendered as #5 on GitHub.

    ​ being the unicode "zero width space" character.

    EDIT: also #⁠ is a very clean and easy to remember option; credit to this SO answer