HTML - Ordered Lists

HTML Ordered List is used to display a collection of items that have a specific order or sequence. For instance, we can use an ordered list to show the steps of a recipe, the ranking of a leader board, or the chronological order of events as shown in the below figure.

Syntax

<ol>
   <li>Item 1</li>
   <li>Item 2</li>
   <li>Item 3</li>
   <li>Item 4</li>
</ol>

Define Ordered Lists

To create an ordered list in HTML follow the bellow steps.

Step 1: Use the <ol> element and nest <li> elements inside it. Each <li> element represents one item in the list.
Step 2: The numbering starts with 1 and is incremented by one for each successive ordered list element tagged with <li>. It also allows us to change the starting numbering with start attribute on <ol> tag to specify the starting point of numbering we need.

Examples of HTML Ordered List

Following are some examples that illustrate usage of Ordered List

Setting type for an Ordered list

In the following example, we are using all values of the type attribute of ordered list. The output of below example displays four ordered lists with counting numbers, roman numbers and alphabets.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <title>HTML Ordered List</title>
</head>
<body>
   <p>Ordered list with counting numbers:</p>
   <ol type="1">
      <li>Beetroot</li>
      <li>Ginger</li>
      <li>Potato</li>
      <li>Radish</li>
   </ol>
   <p>Ordered list with roman numbers:</p>
   <ol type="I">
      <li>Aman</li>
      <li>Vivek</li>
      <li>Shrey</li>
      <li>Ansh</li>
   </ol>
   <p>Ordered list with upper case alphabets:</p>
   <ol type="A">
      <li>Bus</li>
      <li>Train</li>
      <li>Plane</li>
      <li>Boat</li>
   </ol>
   <p>Ordered list with lower case alphabets:</p>
   <ol type="a">
      <li>Item One</li>
      <li>Item Two</li>
      <li>Item Three</li>
      <li>Item Four</li>
   </ol>
</body>
</html>

Setting Start Value for Ordered List

In the following example we define start value for an ordered list as 4

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
   <title>HTML Ordered List</title>
</head>
<body>
   <ol type="i" start="4">
      <li>Beetroot</li>
      <li>Ginger</li>
      <li>Potato</li>
      <li>Radish</li>
   </ol>
</body>
</html>

Styling Ordered List

Styling HTML-ordered lists with CSS allows customization of the appearance to match the design preferences of a website. The CSS styles can target both the list itself (<ol>) and the list items (<li>).

Below is the program example that includes all the CSS styling for ordered list

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Styled Ordered List</title>
   <style>
      /* Basic Styling */
      ol {
         color: navy;
         font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;
         margin-left: 20px;
      }
      li {
         font-size: 16px;
         margin-bottom: 8px;
      }
      /* Changing Numbering Style */
      ol.roman {
         list-style-type: upper-roman;
      }
      ol.letters {
         list-style-type: upper-alpha;
      }
      /* Adding Counters */
      ol.counter-list {
         counter-reset: my-counter;
      }
      ol.counter-list li {
         counter-increment: my-counter;
      }
      ol.counter-list li::before {
         content: counter(my-counter) '. ';
      }
      /* Changing Text Color on Hover */
      li.hover-effect:hover {
         color: #e44d26;
      }
   </style>
</head>
<body>
   <h1>Styled Ordered List Example</h1>
   <h2>Basic Styling</h2>
   <ol>
      <li>Item 1</li>
      <li>Item 2</li>
      <li>Item 3</li>
   </ol>
   <h2>Changing Numbering Style</h2>
   <ol class="roman">
      <li>Roman I</li>
      <li>Roman II</li>
      <li>Roman III</li>
   </ol>
   <ol class="letters">
      <li>Letter A</li>
      <li>Letter B</li>
      <li>Letter C</li>
   </ol>
   <h2>Adding Counters</h2>
   <ol class="counter-list">
      <li>Item</li>
      <li>Item</li>
      <li>Item</li>
   </ol>
   <h2>Changing Text Color on Hover</h2>
   <ol>
      <li class="hover-effect">
         Hover Effect 1
      </li>
      <li class="hover-effect">
         Hover Effect 2
      </li>
      <li class="hover-effect">
         Hover Effect 3
      </li>
   </ol>
</body>
</html>

HTML type Attribute of Ordered List

The type attribute for <ol> tag is used to specify the type of marker for the unordered list in HTML. By default, counting numbers are used. But, we can change this with the help of following values

Type Value	Description
1	It is the default type of marker.
I	List items will be displayed with roman number marker.
A	It will set the marker to upper case alphabets.
a	It sets the marker to lower case alphabets.

HTML start Attribute Pseudo Code

You can use start attribute for <ol> tag to specify the starting point of numbering you need.

// Numerals starts with 4
<ol type="1" start="4"> 

// Numerals starts with IV
<ol type="I" start="4">

// Numerals starts with iv
<ol type="i" start="4">

// Letters starts with d
<ol type="a" start="4">

// Letters starts with D
<ol type="A" start="4">

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