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HTML Ordered Lists

The HTML <ol> tag defines an ordered list. An ordered list can be numerical or alphabetical.

An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

The list items will be marked with numbers by default:

Example:

<ol>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Ordered List example

Type Attribute

The type attribute of the <ol> tag, defines the type of the list item marker:

TypeDescription
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 numbers
type="i"The list items will be numbered with lowercase roman numbers

Numbers (default)

<ol type="1">
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Numbers Ordered List example

Uppercase Letters

<ol type="A">
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Uppercase Letters Ordered List example

Lowercase Letters

<ol type="a">
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Lowercase Letters Ordered List example

Uppercase Roman Numbers

<ol type="I">
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Uppercase Roman Numbers Ordered List example

Lowercase Roman Numbers

<ol type="i">
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Lowercase Roman Numbers Ordered List example

Control List Counting

By default, an ordered list will start counting from 1. If you want to start counting from a specified number, you can use the start attribute:

<ol start="50">  
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Ordered List with start attribute example

Nested HTML Lists

Lists can be nested (list inside list):

<ol>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item
<ol>
<li>Sub-Item</li>
<li>Sub-Item</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

Output:

Nested Ordered List example

note

A list item <li> can contain a new list, and other HTML elements, like images and links, etc.