code: def escape_markdown(text, *, as_needed=False, ignore_links=True):
      r
  
      if not as_needed:
          url_regex = r'(?P<url>(?:https?|steam)://(?:-\.)?(?:[^\s/?\.#-]+\.?)+(?:/[^\s]*)?)'
          def replacement(match):
              groupdict = match.groupdict()
              is_url = groupdict.get('url')
              if is_url:
                  return is_url
              return '\\' + groupdict['markdown']
  
          regex = r'(?P<markdown>[_\\~|\*`])'
          if ignore_links:
              regex = '(?:%s|%s)' % (url_regex, regex)
          return re.sub(regex, replacement, text)
      else:
          text = re.sub(r'\\', r'\\\\', text)
          return _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX.sub(r'\\\1', text)
docs: r"""A helper function that escapes Discord's markdown.
  
      Parameters
      -----------
      text: :class:`str`
          The text to escape markdown from.
      as_needed: :class:`bool`
          Whether to escape the markdown characters as needed. This
          means that it does not escape extraneous characters if it's
          not necessary, e.g. ``**hello**`` is escaped into ``\*\*hello**``
          instead of ``\*\*hello\*\*``. Note however that this can open
          you up to some clever syntax abuse. Defaults to ``False``.
      ignore_links: :class:`bool`
          Whether to leave links alone when escaping markdown. For example,
          if a URL in the text contains characters such as ``_`` then it will
          be left alone. This option is not supported with ``as_needed``.
          Defaults to ``True``.
  
      Returns
      --------
      :class:`str`
          The text with the markdown special characters escaped with a slash.