Is there a way to fix the numbering of a numbered list in Markdown?

2

I have a Markdown file that has numbered lists in it that look like this:

1. list item 1
1. list item 2
    1. sublist item 1
    1. sublist item 2
1. list item 3

It's rendered as:

  1. list item 1
  2. list item 2
    1. sublist item 1
    2. sublist item 2
  3. list item 3

This is a great feature of Markdown. However, the original .md file still contains the numbered list of all ones (“1.”), making it harder to read the raw Markdown in the .md file.

Is there a tool that will take a Markdown file and output the same Markdown file with the lists renumbered? If not, is there a Markdown compiler that exposes the renumbering portion of the process?

Edit #1

Here's my intended workflow.

Create file.md with the following contents:

1. list item 1
1. list item 2
1. list item 3

Run marked file.md -o file.html. Then I have file.html which has the following contents:

<ol>
    <li>list item 1</li>
    <li>list item 2</li>
    <li>list item 3</li>
</ol>

... and now I see where I made a mistake. I made the assumption that the Markdown compiler was doing the renumbering. Instead, it outputs <li> elements and leaves the job to the browser. Whoops.

Andrew Keeton

Posted 2019-01-28T16:15:21.250

Reputation: 2 341

Question was closed 2019-02-04T16:26:51.300

What is generating these Markdown files? Markdown is simply following it's internal logic to assign the correct numbers in the rendered output, but it seems to me your real problem is the source. – music2myear – 2019-01-30T17:49:56.713

Yeah I don't expect a markdown compiler to edit the source to fix the numbering but I figure there's a tool or API that exposes the renumbering logic so I can fix my Markdown source file. – Andrew Keeton – 2019-01-30T17:57:49.993

Most markdown tools I've used, ranging from wikis to WYSIWYGs, have interpreted the markdown in exactly the same way demonstrated here. I'm guessing that means this is the "standard". There are ways to reset your OL counts, but I cannot think of them off the top of my head. I'd imagine that is documented somewhere. – music2myear – 2019-01-30T18:05:57.253

Because of this, it's still not super clear what you are actually asking. It appears to me that Markdown is functioning the way it is supposed to, and your own tools you use for reading the .md file are the ones with the problem. Further, SuperUser does not recommend software nor do we entertain requests for software recommendations. If you could edit your question to remove the references to requesting software recommendations and instead focusing on getting a solution, and clarify what you're actually trying to accomplish, we may be able to find you a good answer. – music2myear – 2019-01-30T18:08:41.677

Answers

2

I am unaware of any tools that can fix this, but I do have one (potential) solution.

Render your markdown into HTML, then use an HTML-to-markdown service (like this or this) to convert it back to markdown. Not the most efficient, but it should get the job done.

rahuldottech

Posted 2019-01-28T16:15:21.250

Reputation: 5 095

This is actually the perfect answer (see Edit #1). Accepted! – Andrew Keeton – 2019-01-30T19:12:12.103

@AndrewKeeton glad I could help :) – rahuldottech – 2019-01-30T20:49:18.513