In this tutorial, you'll learn how to display things in a list in your Web page. We'll look at unordered lists, ordered lists, and definition lists.

Types of Lists

There are 3 basic types of lists that you can produce using HTML. They are:

Unordered lists

(also known as "bulleted lists"). For example:

• Apples are green
• Bananas are yellow
• Oranges are orange

Ordered lists

(also known as "numbered lists"). For example:

1. Light the blue touch paper.
2. Stand well back.
3. Enjoy the fireworks!

Definition lists

Good for making lists where each item needs a summary followed by a more detailed description. For example:

Paris, France

The capital city of France. Famous attractions include the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Sydney, Australia

The state capital of New South Wales, Australia. Famous attractions include the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

London, England

The capital city of England. Famous attractions include Tower Bridge and Big Ben.

Let's have a look at how to create each of these types of lists in HTML!

Creating Unordered Lists

To create an unordered list, we use the <UL></UL> tags for the list, and the <LI></LI> tags for the list items.

So, to create the unordered list example above, we'd use:

<ul>
<li>Apples are green</li>
<li>Bananas are yellow</li>
<li>Oranges are orange</li>
</ul>

(Note that the closing </LI> tags are optional, but we like to put them in to avoid ambiguities!)

Creating Ordered Lists

The method to create ordered (numbered) lists is almost exactly the same as for unordered lists. The only difference is that we use <OL></OL> tags in place of the <UL></UL> tags.

To recreate our ordered list above:

<ol>
<li>Light the blue touch paper.</li>
<li>Stand well back.</li>
<li>Enjoy the fireworks!</li>
</ol>

Creating Definition Lists

Creating a definition list is a little more complicated than the last 2 types, but it's still pretty easy!

The list itself is created with the <DL></DL> tags. Each item in the list consists of a term, created using the <DT></DT> tags, and the indented definition, which uses the <DD></DD> tags.

So, our cities example above is created as follows:

<dl>

<dt><strong>Paris, France</strong></dt>
<dd>The capital city of France. Famous attractions
include the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral.</dd>

<dt><strong>Sydney, Australia</strong></dt>
<dd>The state capital of New South Wales, Australia. Famous
attractions include the Sydney Opera House and
Harbour Bridge.</dd>

<dt><strong>London, England</strong></dt>
<dd>The capital city of England. Famous attractions 
include Tower Bridge and Big Ben.</dd>

</dl>

Mixing and Matching

It's possible to nest lists. For example, here is a 2-level ordered list:

1. Chapter 1
   1. Section 1.1
   2. Section 1.2
2. Chapter 2
   1. Section 2.1
   2. Section 2.2
   3. Section 2.3

...and here's the code for it:

<ol>
  <li>Chapter 1
    <ol>
      <li>Section 1.1</li>
      <li>Section 1.2</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
  <li>Chapter 2
    <ol>
      <li>Section 2.1</li>
      <li>Section 2.2</li>
      <li>Section 2.3</li>
    </ol>
  </li>
</ol>

It's even possible to nest different types of lists together! In this example, our unordered and ordered lists above are nested inside a definition list:

Types of Fruit

• Apples are green
• Bananas are yellow
• Oranges are orange

Firework Instructions

1. Light the blue touch paper.
2. Stand well back.
3. Enjoy the fireworks!

...and here's the code:

<dl>
  <dt><strong>Types of Fruit</strong></dt>
  <dd>
    <ul>
      <li>Apples are green</li>
      <li>Bananas are yellow</li>
      <li>Oranges are orange</li>
    </ul>
  </dd>

  <dt><strong>Firework Instructions</strong></dt>
  <dd>
    <ol>
      <li>Light the blue touch paper.</li>
      <li>Stand well back.</li>
      <li>Enjoy the fireworks!</li>
    </ol>
  </dd>
</dl>

That's about all there is to know about HTML lists. Why not have a go at creating a few lists yourself! They're easy to make.