Number nested ordered lists in HTML
I have a nested ordered list.
<ol>
<li>first</li>
<li>second
<ol>
<li>second nested first element</li>
<li>second nested secondelement</li>
<li>second nested thirdelement</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>third</li>
<li>fourth</li>
</ol>
Currently the nested elements start back from 1 again, e.g.
- first
- second
- second nested first element
- second nested second element
- second nested third element
- third
- fourth
What I want is for the second element to be numbered like this:
- first
-
second
2.1. second nested first element
2.2. second nested second element
2.3. second nested third element
- third
- fourth
Is there a way of doing this?
Solution 1:
Here's an example which works in all browsers. The pure CSS approach works in the real browsers (i.e. everything but IE6/7) and the jQuery code is to cover the unsupported. It's in flavor of an SSCCE, you can just copy'n'paste'n'run it without changes.
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>SO question 2729927</title>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
if ($('ol:first').css('list-style-type') != 'none') { /* For IE6/7 only. */
$('ol ol').each(function(i, ol) {
ol = $(ol);
var level1 = ol.closest('li').index() + 1;
ol.children('li').each(function(i, li) {
li = $(li);
var level2 = level1 + '.' + (li.index() + 1);
li.prepend('<span>' + level2 + '</span>');
});
});
}
});
</script>
<style>
html>/**/body ol { /* Won't be interpreted by IE6/7. */
list-style-type: none;
counter-reset: level1;
}
ol li:before {
content: counter(level1) ". ";
counter-increment: level1;
}
ol li ol {
list-style-type: none;
counter-reset: level2;
}
ol li ol li:before {
content: counter(level1) "." counter(level2) " ";
counter-increment: level2;
}
ol li span { /* For IE6/7. */
margin: 0 5px 0 -25px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<ol>
<li>first</li>
<li>second
<ol>
<li>second nested first element</li>
<li>second nested second element</li>
<li>second nested third element</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>third</li>
<li>fourth</li>
</ol>
</body>
</html>
Solution 2:
I know it is late to reply, but I just found an example of doing that using CSS. Add this to you CSS section (or file):
ol.nested
{
counter-reset: item
}
li.nested
{
display: block
}
li.nested:before
{
content: counters(item, ".") ". ";
counter-increment: item
}
Here is an example of how your list code would look like:
<ol class="nested">
<li class="nested">item 1</li>
<li class="nested">item 2
<ol class="nested">
<li class="nested">subitem 1</li>
<li class="nested">subitem 2</li>
</ol></li>
<li class="nested">item 3</li>
</ol>
HTH
Solution 3:
None of solutions on this page works correctly and universally for all levels and long (wrapped) paragraphs. It’s really tricky to achieve a consistent indentation due to variable size of marker (1., 1.2, 1.10, 1.10.5, …); it can’t be just “faked,” not even with a precomputed margin/padding for each possible indentation level.
I finally figured out a solution that actually works and doesn’t need any JavaScript.
It’s tested on Firefox 32, Chromium 37, IE 9 and Android Browser. Doesn't work on IE 7 and previous.
CSS:
ol {
list-style-type: none;
counter-reset: item;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
ol > li {
display: table;
counter-increment: item;
margin-bottom: 0.6em;
}
ol > li:before {
content: counters(item, ".") ". ";
display: table-cell;
padding-right: 0.6em;
}
li ol > li {
margin: 0;
}
li ol > li:before {
content: counters(item, ".") " ";
}
Example:
Try it on jsFiddle, fork it on Gist.