python markdown

This extension allows dynamically displaying Python variables in markdown cells. Example: If you set variable a in Python

a = 1.23

and write the following line in a markdown cell:

a = {{a}}

It will be displayed as:

a = 1.23

Further examples

Before rendering the markdown cell:

After rendering the markdown cell:

Caution: There is no restriction in the expression you can embedd in {{ }}. Be careful as you might crash your browser if you return too large datasets.

Internals

The extension overrides the textcell.MarkdownCell.prototype.render function and searches for a Python expression enclosed in double curly braced {{ <expr> }}. It then executes the expression and replaces it with the result returned from Python. Additionally, the result is saved in the metadata of the markdown cell, i.e. cell.metadata.variables[varname]. This stored value is displayed when reloading the notebook.

There is also a preprocessor pymdpreprocessor.PyMarkdownPreprocessor to allow nbconvert to display the computed variables, when converting to an output file format.