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I am trying to write in my R Markdown "3 times 6:10 and (3 times 6):10" all in complete letters (I am using times instead of *. My purpose is to put * instead of word times without any problem). However, it keeps giving me italic syntax for the part "6:10 and (3". How can I write my *s in R Markdown straight into the document without evoking * syntax which is make letters italic in the middle?

Captain Hat
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autopilot38
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3 Answers3

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Escape '*' by using '\*' instead

Alternatively, you could use $\times$ to get the '×' symbol

Captain Hat
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15

On the web use *

That's one of it's HTML codes. (Only mention it because google brought me here when I didn't search about the R language and figure others will end up here as well.)

Robin Nelson
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    For clarity, this also works in Rmarkdown – Captain Hat May 04 '22 at 14:07
  • Wild. Revisiting this and there's 4 distinct ways to do it. (1) spaces around it ` * ` (2) escape with `\*` (3) use/set LaTeX times symbol instead with `$\times$` (4) html code `*` – Robin Nelson Feb 22 '23 at 23:18
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Markdown is quite sensitive to whitespace. If you don't put spaces around the * (line 3 below) you get the problem you're describing (markdown assumes the *s are italic-delimiters).

Some possible solutions

  • line 5: add spaces, no problem (except you might not want that spacing)
  • line 7 (@CaptainHat): set times as a LaTeX times symbol
  • line 9: set in code format
  • line 11 (@CaptainHat): protect *s with backslashes

Also tried @CaptainHat's suggestions as well as type-setting in code format ...) enter image description here

Other possibilities are to use the letter "x" for multiplication, or (if available on your keyboard/via compose-key) to use the × symbol (Unicode 00D7: instructions here).

Ben Bolker
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