Overview
There are three different types of HTML lists: ordered lists, unordered lists, and definition lists.
| Tag | List Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| <ol> | Ordered List | This will list items using numbers |
| <ul> | Unordered List | This will list items using bullets |
| <dl> | Definition List | This lists the items similar to how they are arranged in a dictionary (term > definition, term > definition, etc.) |
Ordered Lists
Ordered lists use the <ol> tag and the list items within use the <li> tag. The list items will be marked with numbers by default (1, 2, 3, etc.).
<ol>
<li>Maserati</li>
<li>Alfa Romeo</li>
<li>Ferrari</li>
</ol>- Maserati
- Alfa Romeo
- Ferrari
These are the number types that can be used in an ordered list.
| Bullet Type | Description |
|---|---|
| type="1" | The list items will be numbered with numbers (default) |
| type="A" | The list items will be numbered with uppercase letters |
| type="a" | The list items will be numbered with lowercase letters |
| type="I" | The list items will be numbered with uppercase roman numerals |
| type="i" | The list items will be numbered with lowercase roman numerals |
The following is an example of changing the number type.
<ol type="I">
<li>Maserati</li>
<li>Alfa Romeo</li>
<li>Ferrari</li>
</ol>You can also set the starting number of the list.
<ol type="1" start="20">
<li>Maserati</li>
<li>Alfa Romeo</li>
<li>Ferrari</li>
</ol>Unordered Lists
Unordered lists use the <ul> tag and the list items within use the <li> tag. The list items will be marked with a small black dot (disc) by default.
<ul>
<li>Maserati</li>
<li>Alfa Romeo</li>
<li>Ferrari</li>
</ul>- Maserati
- Alfa Romeo
- Ferrari
These are the bullet types that can be used in an unordered list.
| Bullet Type | Description |
|---|---|
| disc | Sets the list item marker to a dot (default) |
| circle | Sets the list item marker to a circle |
| square | Sets the list item marker to a square |
| none | The list items will not have a bullet of any kind |
The following is an example of changing the bullet type.
<ul type="square">
<li>Maserati</li>
<li>Alfa Romeo</li>
<li>Ferrari</li>
</ul>Definition Lists
Definition lists use the <dl> tag and the list items (definition terms) within use the <dt> tag. The <dd> tag is the definition description of the related term.
<dl>
<dt>Maserati</dt>
<dd>- Italian Luxury Sports Car</dd>
<dt>Ferrari</dt>
<dd>- Italian Exotic Sports Car</dd>
</dl>Note
It would be best to set your bullet or number types using CSS in a linked style sheet and not inline as we do above.
HTML Notes:
- In our HTML section the term “tag” and “element” are often used interchangeably to refer to both the tag used to create a page element and the element created by the tag (<p> tag = <p> element = paragraph on the page)
- HTML5 is not case sensitive; so <P> is the same as <p>, <H1> is the same as <h1>
- Global attributes can be used with all HTML tags and are therefore not mentioned on every tag page
- To write clean, readable HTML code, it is best to use indentation whereas elements within elements are indented (tabbed or spaces) to create something that looks like a project outline
- The browser will automatically remove any extra spaces and lines in your HTML code when the page is displayed
- Double quotes or single quotes can be used around HTML attribute values, but when the attribute value itself contains one form of quote, it will be necessary to use the other around the attribute
We’d like to acknowledge that we learned a great deal of our coding from W3Schools and TutorialsPoint, borrowing heavily from their teaching process and excellent code examples. We highly recommend both sites to deepen your experience, and further your coding journey. We’re just hitting the basics here at 1SMARTchicken.