can't insert tables within dd tags in markdown syntax - html

Question

setting up documentation for a plugin.
Can you add tables within a dd tag?
I tried the code below but it wont output as a table I tried with the double space line break technique but nothing either
This doesnt parse the table and just leaves the table syntax as is
Term
: definition
: | Table cell | Table cel | Table cell |
This wont render (note there are two spaces after definition)
Term
: definition
| Table cell | Table cel | Table cell |
my goal is this:
<dl>
<dt>Term</dt>
<dd>
definition
<table>
<!-- table rows and cells here -->
</table>
</dd>
</dl>

Answer 1

Depending on the Markdown implementation you are using either you can't or you need to do three things:
(1) Wrap your table with blank lines
A table is a block level element, just like a paragraph is. Therefore, it needs to be on a line by itself. To accomplish that, you need to include a blank line before the table. There is no need to add two spaces to the preceding line as the blank line already separates the elements and each block-level element will always be on its own line (barring some non-standard CSS which changes that behavior) .
(2) Indent your table
Of course, when you are nesting block level elements inside a list item and those elements do not start in the first line of the list item, you must indent those elements by one level to indicate they are nested. Therefore, the table must be indented by four spaces or one tab.
(3) Add a table header
Except for Kramdown, all implementations which support tables (that I am aware of) require the table to include a header. Otherwise, they do not recognize it as a table.
Example
Try this:
Term
: definition
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
| ---------- | --------- | ---------- |
| Table cell | Table cel | Table cell |
That said, both definition lists and tables are non-standard Markdown and their behavior varies among implementations which support them (not all do). Therefore, YMMV.
In fact, Babelmark demonstrates that the above works for Pandoc, RDiscount, PHP Markdown Extra, and MultiMarkdown (strangely version 5, but not version 6). Note that a few other implementations likely would work as well if they were properly configured. Babelmark only demonstrates default behavior for each implementation.