HTML Lists
Lists are collections of organized items, primarily divided into two types: ordered and unordered.
Ordered lists feature numbered items, displaying a clear sequence, like this:1
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31. Item A
2. Item B
3. Item C
Unordered lists, on the other hand, use bullet points instead of numbers:1
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3• Item A
• Item B
• Item C
<ol>
The <ol> tag creates an ordered list container. It automatically generates numbers for each list item. This tag is ideal for content where the order matters, such as rankings.1
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5<ol>
<li>Item A</li>
<li>Item B</li>
<li>Item C</li>
</ol>
This code will number the items A, B, and C as 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
You can nest <ol> or <ul> tags within an <ol> to create multi-level lists:1
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11<ol>
<li>Item A</li>
<li>Item B
<ol>
<li>Item B1</li>
<li>Item B2</li>
<li>Item B3</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Item C</li>
</ol>
This nested list will render as:1
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61. Item A
2. Item B
1. Item B1
2. Item B2
3. Item B3
3.Item C
The <ol> tag has several useful attributes:
reversed: Creates a reverse-order list.
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5<ol reversed>
<li>Item A</li>
<li>Item B</li>
<li>Item C</li>
</ol>This will number the items as 3, 2, 1.
start: Sets the starting number for the list.
1 | <ol start="5"> |
This will number the items as 5, 6, 7.
- type: Specifies the numbering style. Options include:
a: lowercase lettersA: uppercase lettersi: lowercase Roman numeralsI: uppercase Roman numerals1: integers (default)
1 | <ol type="a"> |
This will label the items as a, b, c.
Note: Even when using letters, the start attribute still uses integers:1
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5<ol type="a" start="3">
<li>Item A</li>
<li>Item B</li>
<li>Item C</li>
</ol>
This will start the list at ‘c’.
<ul>
The <ul> tag creates an unordered list container, using bullet points for each item. It’s best for lists where order doesn’t matter.1
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5<ul>
<li>Item A</li>
<li>Item B</li>
<li>Item C</li>
</ul>
This renders as a bulleted list.
Like <ol>, you can nest <ul> or <ol> tags within <ul> for multi-level lists.
<li>
The <li> tag represents list items within <ol> or <ul> containers.
In ordered lists, <li> has a value attribute to set the item’s number:1
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5<ol>
<li>Item A</li>
<li value="4">Item B</li>
<li>Item C</li>
</ol>
This will number the items as 1, 4, 5.
Definition Lists: <dl>, <dt>, <dd>
The <dl> tag is a block-level element used to create a description list. It consists of term-definition pairs, where <dt> defines the term (description term) and <dd> provides the definition (description detail). Description lists are commonly used for glossaries or vocabularies.1
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8<dl>
<dt>CPU</dt>
<dd>Central Processing Unit</dd>
<dt>Memory</dt>
<dd>RAM</dd>
<dt>Hard Disk</dt>
<dd>Storage device</dd>
</dl>
Both <dt> and <dd> are block-level elements. By default, <dd> elements are indented beneath their corresponding <dt> elements. The default rendering of the above code would look like this:1
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8CPU
Central Processing Unit
Memory
RAM
Hard Disk
Storage device
It’s perfectly valid to have multiple terms (<dt>) sharing a single definition (<dd>), or multiple definitions (<dd>) for a single term (<dt>).
For example:1
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9<dl>
<dt>A</dt>
<dt>B</dt>
<dd>C</dd>
<dt>D</dt>
<dd>E</dd>
<dd>F</dd>
</dl>
In this structure, terms A and B share the common definition C, while term D has two definitions, E and F.