Render math in links after pipe (or as an alias)

Feature requests
1

Would it be possible to make math render in links? Essentially I am talking about the following displaying the rendered x at the last line and not $x$.

$$x = 10$$
^fftest

[[#^fftest|$x$]]

Use case or problem

I am reading a lot of scientific papers with maths where variables all have some specific complicated meaning. With wikilinks I could use block referencing, such that when I type the variable and hover over I can see what it means. This would be great when the variable is a complicated expression.

Proposed solution

Make math mode renderable in links? I don’t know if this is complicated or simple.

Current workaround (optional)

Right now I am defining the variable at the top of the note and then link the definition with block referencing to one of the other words in the text. For example

“… then we see that the [[#^fftest|$x$variable]] x is not identifiable…”

Related feature requests (optional)

This is the closest I have found as a request. It is, however, the opposite direction of linking.. I think that what the person suggests might be really hard to implement in the latex environment but I hope that the reverse direction would be different.

I am not sure but is this similar?

18 Likes
2

I would love that feature as well.

3 Likes
3

Use case or problem

Sometimes notes have an equation as title, and I’d like to show them as such in links.

Proposed solution

If link alt name is defined and contains LaTex, render that LaTex part just like it’s rendered elsewhere in the document.

Please see this related bug report.

Current workaround (optional)

–

Related feature requests (optional)

–

2 Likes
4

This works: [$NH_3$](ammonia)

This does not work: [[ammonia|$NH_3$]]

6 Likes
5

That is a very good workaround for now, I did not know that. Thank you!

1 Like
6

Thanks!

The only downside is that it does not allow intervals.

This works:

> [$g(\tilde{S}_T, \mu_0 \mid \tilde{y}_{T})$](joint_conditional_disribution)

This does not:
[$g(\tilde{S}_T, \mu_0 \mid \tilde{y}_{T})$](joint conditional disribution)

2 Likes
7

That seems like a separate bug - can you file it?

1 Like
8

Um, sure. I haven’t used aliases and I didn’t know they allow for intervals. Is the expected behaviour to allow for spaces?

1 Like
9

@WhiteNoise knows that specification in detail. I expect this follows the spec precisely for compatibility.

If you want the spaces, you can add them as %20. Following wise words from the forum, I made all my file-names-dash-separated and this is not an issue.

I think I’d like the URL to be fixed in external links so spaces become %20 automatically, but I don’t know how to do this unintrusively.

[$g(\tilde{S}T, \mu_0 \mid \tilde{y}{T})$](joint%20conditional%20disribution)

1 Like
10

Bumping cause I am sorely in need of this feature, too!

1 Like
11

Bumping as well, this would be a lifesaver!

1 Like
12

Bumping because this would definitely make obsidian a goto tool for studying mathematics and sundry(computer science in my case)

1 Like
13

I’d also love this; however, the workaround above with [$NH_3$](ammonia), for example, does not work in live preview mode; you have to go to reading mode to see it (regular math still displays), which appears to be a bug. It would be nice to get that working, then also get the original request.

4 Likes
14

Would definitely love to see this feature implemented. It is very useful when you’re working on complicated terms that are often referred to using symbols and equations (e.g., SL(2, R)).

1 Like
15

Bumping this again, this feature is soooo needed, it helps with math notes a ridiculous amount.

3 Likes
16

Also bumping again, many users of obsidian deal in mathsy subjects and this is so vital to maths notes.

2 Likes
17

I am not sure anymore but I think that at some point they mentioned this might not be possible because of the way latex is rendered.

1 Like
18

Another bump, this feature is sorely missing! The main downside of the [$NH_3$](ammonia) workaround is that it doesn’t automatically update links (to my knowledge)

1 Like
19

Hello! So apparently I’ve been living under a rock and never came across this post, but I made a plugin that provides an alternate solution. Here is a sample page:

sample
sample1920×1080 344 KB

The right pane is in reading mode with some links containing math in blue. The left pane contains the same note in editing mode, where the corresponding links are regular [[...]] Wikilinks (Markdown links work too).

How this plugin works is that it assigns, to each note that you want to have links rendered in math, a mathLink. For example, the sample note above has a mathLink, set in its YAML section (see top-left corner) as

---
mathLink: $\tpl{\Z_n,+}$
---

This will make every note that have links to this note render the regular [[...]] as its corresponding mathLink.

  • Another example: the note Order of additive group of integers mod n is n.md has a mathLink that will render in the sample note as |Z_n|=n (in proper LaTeX, of course).

This doesn’t exactly fit the requests of this thread, but it provides an alternate solution that mimics the behaviour of []()-type links.

The main advantage of this method over using []()-type links is that changing one mathLink will modify how every link to this note gets rendered, sidestepping the cumbersome process of chaning the alias for each link.

  • You can still use []()-type links as usual; the plugin will ignore those, which allows you to have specific aliases over the general mathLink that gets applied everywhere.

You can read more about this plugin here (the Github page).

I hope this helps!! Any/all feedback is appreciated :slight_smile:

Edit: This plugin also works well with the Extended MathJax plugin, which adds a MathJax preamble for your vault (allowing for macros etc).

3 Likes
20

Oh, I really have to try it, thanks @Zhaoshen_Zhai!