How do I generate two column format with python?

[stefaniecg]

Description

I need to generate a column format in a quarto report using python.
How could i do this?

Thank you for the help you can provide :)

---
title: Column generation
author: me
---

## Generated direct
This works ok.

::: {layout-ncol=2}
column1

column2
:::

## Generated with python
This does not work.

  ```{python}
     from IPython.display import display, Markdown
     display(Markdown('## I need to be able to generate it like this'))
     display(Markdown('::: {layout-ncol=2}'))
     display(Markdown('column1\n'))
     display(Markdown('\n'))
     display(Markdown('column2\n'))
     display(Markdown(':::'))
     display(Markdown('\n'))

[gordonwoodhull]

Quarto's Jupyter engine will output each display(Markdown(...)) in its own fenced div block.

To debug this, you can see what happens with keep-md:true and look at the .html.md output.

So if you want to build fenced divs programmatically, the easiest (and perhaps only) way is to put it all in one Markdown string,

This works:

```{python}
from IPython.display import display, Markdown
display(Markdown("""
## I need to be able to generate it like this
::: {layout-ncol=2}
column1

column2
:::
"""))
```

[stefaniecg]

@gordonwoodhull
Thank you for your recommendation.
It worked quite well.
I have an extra little problem now is that the python generated markdown does not appear in the TOC of my HTML.
This line is not included in the table of contents (TOC).
display(Markdown('## I need to be able to generate it like this'))
Can you tell if you get the same result? is this a bug? or normal?
Thank you for your help

[cderv]

@stefaniecg you can use keep-md: true to see the markdown created.

You'll see the level two header will be inside a Div. And this is why it is not taken into account in the TOC (this is Pandoc limitation I believe).

However, if you are producing raw content, you should set #| output: asis in the cell to make that clear. Quarto won't create the Div of class .cell used internally to know this is a cell output. It will consider it Raw markdown.

Setting echo: false would have worked too as your are using Markdown() display directly, you'll get the same results.

Basically, this is because explicit #| output: asis is missing. Best to use it when producing Raw Markdown.