LI - List Item

Summary

Syntax	<LI>...</LI>
Attribute Specifications	TYPE=[ disc | square | circle | 1 | a | A | i | I ] (style of list item marker) VALUE=Number (number in sequence) common attributes
Contents	Inline elements, block-level elements (except for LIs used within DIR and MENU, which do not allow block-level elements)
Contained in	OL, UL, DIR, MENU

Details

The LI element defines a list item. The element must be contained within DIR, MENU, OL or UL.

Unless used with the deprecated MENU or DIR elements, LI may contain block-level elements, including H2, TABLE, UL, and OL. This allows OL and UL to be nested, as in the following example:

<UL>
	<LI>
		<H2>HTML Document Type Definitions</H2>
		<UL>
			<LI><A HREF="html.dtd">HTML 2.0</A></LI>
			<LI><A HREF="HTML32.dtd">HTML 3.2</A></LI>
			<LI><A HREF="strict.dtd">HTML 4.0 Strict</A></LI>
		</UL>
	</LI>


	<LI>
		<H2>SGML Character Entity References</H2>
		<UL>
			<LI><A HREF="HTMLlat1.ent">Latin-1 Entities</A></LI>
			<LI><A HREF="HTMLsymbol.ent">Symbols and Greek Letters</A></LI>
			<LI><A HREF="HTMLspecial.ent">Other Special Characters</A></LI>
		</UL>
	</LI>
</UL>

When used with MENU and DIR, LI may not contain block-level elements, and lists cannot be nested.

The deprecated TYPE attribute of LI suggests the rendering of the list item marker. Possible values are as follows:

• Case-insensitive values for LI within a UL, DIR, or MENU:
  • disc (a filled-in circle)
  • square (a square outline)
  • circle (a circle outline)
• Case-sensitive values for LI within an OL:
  • 1 (decimal numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ...)
  • a (lowercase alphabetic: a, b, c, d, e, ...)
  • A (uppercase alphabetic: A, B, C, D, E, ...)
  • i (lowercase Roman numerals: i, ii, iii, iv, v, ...)
  • I (uppercase Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, V, ...)

Style sheets provide greater flexibility in suggesting list item styles. The list-style property of CSS includes the added abilities to suppress list item markers, use images as markers, and more.

LI's VALUE attribute specifies the number of the list item when used with an OL. The number must be given as an integer, though the list item marker may be rendered in another form (for example, as a Roman numeral). Any LI element following in the same list will take its default sequence number based on the first preceding VALUE attribute. VALUE is deprecated in HTML 4.0, but no substitute currently exists in CSS.

More Information

• LI in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation
• LI in W3C HTML 3.2 Recommendation
• LI in HTML 2.0 Standard
• LI in WDG HTML 3.2 Reference
• LI in Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples

Copyright © John Pozadzides and Liam Quinn. All rights reserved.