Not handling nested lists

[Knamdev]

input_str = """ We would like to study about states of matter\n

Matter\n

• Solid
  • Ice cream
  • mobile
  • board etc.
• Liquid
  • Water

• Gas

  • Air

  """

out_put = markdown.markdown(input_str) print(out_put)

The input string has nested lists, but when I convert it to html using markdown, the nested lists are displayed as single list.

We would like to study about states of matter

Matter

• Solid
• Ice cream
• mobile
• board etc.
• Liquid
• Water
• Gas
• Air

[facelessuser]

You are not indenting nested list to 4 spaces like the documentation states is required:

import markdown

input_str = """
We would like to study about states of matter\n
## Matter

- Solid
    - Ice cream
    - mobile
    - board etc.
- Liquid
    - Water
- Gas
    - Air

"""

out_put = markdown.markdown(input_str)
print(out_put)

"""
<p>We would like to study about states of matter</p>
<h2>Matter</h2>
<ul>
<li>Solid<ul>
<li>Ice cream</li>
<li>mobile</li>
<li>board etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Liquid<ul>
<li>Water</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Gas<ul>
<li>Air</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
"""

We would like to study about states of matter

Matter

• Solid
  • Ice cream
  • mobile
  • board etc.

• Liquid
  • Water
• Gas
  • Air

[waylan]

As @facelessuser states, this behavior is documented. You can find that here. As this is the intended behavior, I am closing this.

[chrispy-snps]

Unfortunately, some Markdown sources do use three spaces for indented lists. For example, LLM-generated replies often use three spaces (likely because their training material included such content).

While I understand the four-space expectation is documented, it would be nice to have an option to relax the requirement for less well-behaved data sources. If anyone is aware of such a plugin, please share!

[facelessuser]

It should be noted that Python Markdown is not meant to parse every Markdown convention out in the wild. Python Markdown is also an old-school Markdown parser, not a CommonMark parser. With that said, extensions can be created to override the default list behavior, and IIRC there are probably some already out there that are more forgiving with indentation. I don't have time to hunt examples right now though, and I also don't know if they have other side effects, but I'm fairly certain there are some extensions out there that attempt to address the indentation to be more forgiving.

[mitya57]

Unfortunately, some Markdown sources do use three spaces for indented lists. For example, LLM-generated replies often use three spaces

You can configure the number of spaces which is considered an indentation using the tab_length setting:

>>> text = """
... * foo
...    - bar
... """
>>> print(markdown.markdown(text))
<ul>
<li>foo</li>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>
>>> print(markdown.markdown(text, tab_length=3))
<ul>
<li>foo<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

[chrispy-snps]

@mitya57 - the tab_length setting works perfectly - thank you!

In our application, the LLM (OpenAI GPT-4o) generates responses that align list sublist item to the parent item's start-of-content:

9. This is item 9.
   - This is a sublist item.
10. This is item 10.
    - This is a sublist item.

Setting tab_length=3 handles both cases perfectly.