When using SO's code blocks, can you control how syntax highlighting is performed? Many times, I've pasted (for example) some shell output into an SO answer, and the syntax highlighting has been completely unrelated. Is there any way to turn it off, or to change the language used?
asked Aug 10, 2009 at 14:28
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See also: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/981/syntax-highlighting-hintsRowland Shaw– Rowland Shaw2010-06-29 14:17:07 +00:00Commented Jun 29, 2010 at 14:17
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2 Answers
There is a way to completely turn off code highlighting: use <code>'s cause problems). EDIT: As random pointed out, <pre> will work better than <code>.
Normal highlighting:
return 'a' "x" void
With <pre> it looks like this:
return 'a' "x" void
Keep in mind that with <pre>, you don't need to indent your code by four spaces. For example, the code in this answer is formatted like this:
Normal highlighting with four spaces:
return 'a' "x" void
or with ```language:
```js
return 'a' "x" void
```
With `<pre>` it looks like this:
<pre>
return 'a' "x" void
</pre>
(Sorry about the highlighting but I can't do this in <pre>...)
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If you want the nice background, use
PRErandom– random2009-08-10 14:48:00 +00:00Commented Aug 10, 2009 at 14:48 -
9Note that it appears that
<!-- language: none -->is now the preferred mechanism to disable syntax highlighting for a preformatted block of text.Phrogz– Phrogz2011-03-31 22:32:00 +00:00Commented Mar 31, 2011 at 22:32 -
I hope, my proposed edit enriches the post.Cadoiz– Cadoiz2021-09-20 06:31:57 +00:00Commented Sep 20, 2021 at 6:31
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1There is also the newer code fence, ```lang-none.This_is_NOT_a_forum– This_is_NOT_a_forum2021-09-20 11:59:35 +00:00Commented Sep 20, 2021 at 11:59
You cannot control how the syntax is highlighted.
SO, uses Google's prettify to do the syntax coloring. Prettify uses common language patterns to determine syntax coloring.
For example:
Comments:
// comment
#comment
Strings:
'This is a string'
"So is this"
Key words:
void
return
int
bool
As Zifre says. You can turn off the syntax highlighting in code by using the <pre> tags around your desired block of code.
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1So this is a problem upstream?SingleNegationElimination– SingleNegationElimination2009-09-10 23:20:48 +00:00Commented Sep 10, 2009 at 23:20
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Hmm... it looks like prettify has the ability to specify a language using a lang-* css class.SingleNegationElimination– SingleNegationElimination2009-09-10 23:26:38 +00:00Commented Sep 10, 2009 at 23:26
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Didn't work for me....
<pre class="prettyprint lang-html">made the code a complete mess.Joe Casadonte– Joe Casadonte2010-03-06 13:51:00 +00:00Commented Mar 6, 2010 at 13:51