Markdown for tables does not honor empty lines above or below the table

[albeec13]

When inserting tables in a Bitbucket PR, no matter how many empty lines I put before or after a table, the output rendering removes all line breaks, causing the table to be smashed between paragraphs of text. Obviously, adding NO empty lines before and after the table markdown results in the table not rendering at all.

Example:

I've tried everything from 1 space to 10 or more, and they always get eaten up in the final rendering.

[Kseniia Trushnikova · Accepted solution]

Hi @albeec13,

Looks like CommonMark, as used in Bitbucket, doesn't allow to add empty lines. Here's documentation for the latest CommonMark release: https://spec.commonmark.org/0.31.2/

For adding extra space between lines, the HTML non-breaking space character   can be used. Like this:

   

[albeec13]

Thanks Kseniia. That does seem to work, but it seems like a workaround using   shouldn't be required.

It's just strange that unlike most other block constructs such as a block of monospaced text using ``` (opening and closing back-ticks), which requires a blank line before and after the ``` in order to render properly, a table has the same pre/post blank line requirements, but does not retain them in the generated output. This causes things before and after the table to be smashed into the table.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like the pre/post spaces should be retained with tables just as they are with other block-like constructs to separate them from what comes before and after.