Help:List

This is a copy of the master help page at m:Help:List. Do not edit this page. Edits will be lost in the next update from the master page. Either edit the master help page for all projects at Meta, or edit the project-specific text at Template:Ph:List. You are welcome to copy the exact wikitext from the master page at Meta and paste it into this page at any time.

* Lists are easy to do:
** start every line with a star
*** more stars means deeper levels

*A newline
*in a list  
marks the end of the list.
Of course
*you can
*start again.

# Numbered lists are also good
## very organized
## easy to follow

* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this<br>or have newlines<br>inside lists

* You can also
**break lines<br>inside lists<br>like this

; Definition list : list of definitions
; item : the item's definition

(In this and the next section numbered lists are used in examples; unnumbered lists give a corresponding result, except that a possible problem of a list restarting with 1 is not applicable.)

A list item can only be one paragraph unless HTML tages are used. Otherwise, the new paragraph will end the list. If the list is unnumbered, a new list can be started, but if the list is numbered, the numbering will start over from 1.

In the case of a numbered list, the same is used to have a blank line between list items (more or less necessary if there is a multi-paragraph list item, otherwise the lay-out is confusing); in the case of an unnumbered list one can simply start a new one.

One way to produce a paragraph break in a list is to use <br><br>. The spacing between paragraphs may look odd, however.

Example:

#Abc dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.<br><br>Def dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.<br><br>
#Ghi dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.<br><br>Jkl dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.

Result:

1. Abc dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.
   
   Def dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.
   
   
2. Ghi dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.
   
   Jkl dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.

To get more convincing spacing, you can instead put <p> and </p> tags around each paragraph in the list item.

Example:

#Abc dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.<p>Def dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.</p>
#Ghi dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.<p>Jkl dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.</p>

Result:

1. Abc dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.

   Def dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.

2. Ghi dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.

   Jkl dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text dummy text.

In HTML, a list item may contain several sublists, not necessarily adjacent; thus there may be parts of the list item not only before the first sublist, but also between sublists, and after the last one; however, in wiki-syntax, sublists follow the same rules as sections of a page: the only possible part of the list item not in sublists is before the first sublist.

In the case of an unnumbered first-level list in wikitext code this limitation can be overcome by splitting the list into multiple lists; indented text between the partial lists may visually serve as part of a list item after a sublist; however, this may give, depending on CSS, a blank line before and after each list, in which case, for uniformity, every first-level list item could be made a separate list.

Numbered lists illustrate that what should look like one list may, for the software, consist of multiple lists; unnumbered lists give a corresponding result, except that the problem of restarting with 1 is not applicable.

<ol>
  <li>list item A1
    <ol>
      <li>list item B1</li>
      <li>list item B2</li></ol>continuing list item A1
  </li>
  <li>list item A2</li>
</ol>

#list item A1
##list item B1
##list item B2
:continuing list item A1
#list item A2

One level deeper, with a sublist item continuing after a sub-sublist, one gets even more blank lines; however, the continuation of the first-level list is not affected:

#list item A1
##list item B1
###list item C1
::continuing list item B1
##list item B2
#list item A2

gives

1. list item A1
   1. list item B1
      1. list item C1

continuing list item B1

1. 1. list item B2
2. list item A2

See also subdivisions.

In a numbered list in a large font, some browsers do not show more than two digits, unless extra indentation is applied (if there are multiple columns: for each column).

:#abd
:#def
:#ghi

gives

1. abd
2. def
3. ghi

In the case that HTML has to be used (see next section), extra indentation of a list is achieved with the tags <ul>, </ul>:

<ul><ol><li>abc
<li>def
<li>ghi
</ol></ul>

gives

1. abc
2. def
3. ghi

Some background explanation: a HTML list can have content before the first list item, distinguished from content before the list by its indentation; MediaWiki changes such content into a list item without a number displayed, but with implicit number 1; in particular a "list" can have content but no list items, which MediaWiki changes into a list with one unnumbered list item, which makes no difference: the only effect is indentation of the content; in the case mentioned the content is itself a numbered sublist.

Specifying a starting value is useful for a numbered list with multiple columns, to avoid restarting from one in each column. This is only possible with HTML-syntax (for the first column either wiki-syntax or HTML-syntax can be used).

In combination with the extra indentation explained in the previous section:

{| valign="top"
|-
|<ul><ol start="125"><li>a<li>bb<li>ccc</ol></ul>
|<ul><ol start="128"><li>ddd<li>ee<li>f</ol></ul>
|}

gives

See also wikicities:Template:List of Wikicities (talk, backlinks, edit).

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