Question
Answer and Explanation
In R Markdown, there isn't a specific "first-line indentation" requirement in the same way as some programming languages or formats. However, R Markdown relies on specific syntaxes to indicate headers, code chunks, and lists, and you need to be careful about unintended indentations within certain contexts.
General R Markdown Rules for Indentation
1. Plain Text and Paragraphs:
- For regular paragraphs, R Markdown ignores indentation at the beginning of lines. Therefore, if you just write some sentences of regular text in your .Rmd file, leading white space (including leading tab or spaces) doesn't affect the formatting; you can format them freely in plain markdown.
2. Headers:
- Header levels are defined by the number of leading `#` characters, which is standard in Markdown and has no indentation requirements (e.g., `# Header 1`, `## Header 2`). Leading spaces will also render headers.
3. Code Chunks:
- Code chunks are enclosed by three backticks with `{}`, and are not concerned with indentations within the block if your writing regular R or other syntax within them. For inline codes you need to use single backticks, ` `some code snippet`` for a code snipper
4. Lists:
- R Markdown interprets ordered and unordered lists based on their structure which usually need intendations after a list starter `` or `-`.
Unordered lists with `-` followed by `space`
sub-elements must have space and another sign ``, or `-` followed by space.
1. Ordered lists start with a number and a `.` followed by space.
1.1 sub-elements are intended the same way but the structure will remain.
When Indentation Matters
- Indentation significantly impacts lists and their structure, they need at least one space character after list symbol. Improper indendation will render in-line with regular markdown content.
- For more specific formatting with some libraries like `rmarkdown`, the text structure may involve indentation with spaces depending on libraries documentation, and not mandatory.
Important Note: The way your IDE and R Studio displays the file may affect visualization, but after processing R Markdown (.Rmd) to create a compiled output, you'll find that indentation not relating to structure or lists will disappear in regular paragraphs.
Therefore, when you work with R Markdown, remember: don't start each text line with indentation (it won't hurt or break anything), follow a general ruleset like those described in the sections, but primarily, pay attention when adding elements and structuring them within ordered/unordered list. It will also serve your visualization when creating HTML and PDF versions of the document.