ol – ordered list

ol

For technical reasons, the title of this article is not the text used to call this API. Instead, use ol

Summary

The ol element is used to define an ordered list. The element encloses one or more list items, enclosed in li elements.

Overview Table

DOM Interface: HTMLOListElement

Permitted contents	One of the following: Either: Zero or more li elements. Or: A template element. Or: any combination of the above two
Permitted parents	Any element that can contain [flow content](/w/index.php?title=html/concepts/flowContent&action=edit&redlink=1).
Tag omission	A ol element must have both a start tag and an end tag.

The **ordered list**, represented by the **ol** element, is most often used to group a list of items, enclosed in [**li**](/html/elements/li) elements, together in an ordered and semantic way.

Examples

This example uses the ol element to create a numbered list.

<ol>
  <li>This is the first list item</li>
  <li>This is the second list item</li>
</ol>

View live example

The ol element with the type attribute set to a.

<ol type="a">
  <li>This is the first list item</li>
  <li>This is the second list item</li>
</ol>

View live example

Typical browser default CSS properties for the ol element.

display: block;
list-style-type: decimal;
margin-top: 16px;
margin-bottom: 16px;

Notes

Remarks

The type attribute sets the list type for all ensuing lists unless a different type value is set.

Standards information

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification, Section 1.6.5
HTML 4.01 Specification, Section 10.2

Related specifications

HTML 5.1: W3C Working Draft
HTML 5: W3C Recommendation
HTML 4.01: W3C Recommendation

Microsoft Developer Network: [Windows Internet Explorer API reference Article]