Display link url in markdown

Question

I have a markdown file in which I use a link multiple times, for example:

This [website][an_awesome_website_link] is awesome.  You will never use anything else than this [website][an_awesome_website_link].  [an_awesome_website_link]: https://stackoverflow.com 

Formatted, it looks like:

This website is awesome.

You will never use anything else than this website.

---

I want to display the link url of [an_awesome_website_link] without having to write again the said url.

For example, I want to have this, and write the url of stackoverflow only 1 time in my markdown file:

This website (https://stackoverflow.com).

You will never use anything else than this website.

Check out https://stackoverflow.com for more fun.

Is it possible ? How ?

Answer 1

In short, it's not possible without some sort of non-standard extension or macro.

There are three kinds of links in Markdown.

1. Standard links in which both the label and URL are defined together:

   [label](http://example.com) 

2. Reference links, which can be in one of two forms:

   [label][key] or [key]  [key]: http://example.com 

3. Automatic Links, where the label is the URL:

   <http://example.com> 

   While some implementations do not require the angle brackets, it is best to include them so that is works across all implementations.

However, there is no facility to make reference to a reference link and have it display the URL instead of the label. Therefore, the most minimal way to generate your desired output would be with this Markdown input:

This [website (https://stackoverflow.com)][website] is awesome.  You will never use anything else than this [website].  Check out <https://stackoverflow.com> for more fun.  [website]: https://stackoverflow.com 

That said, some Markdown parsers have extension APIs and you could conceivably write an extension/plugin/macro which would give you the behavior you want. However, that would be non-standard and would not work anywhere else except with your locally modified parser. As you indicate you are using a third party hosting service, then that is not likely to be an option for you.