8.7 enumerate ¶

Synopsis:

\begin{enumerate}
  \item[optional label of first item] text of first item
  \item[optional label of second item] text of second item
  ...
\end{enumerate}

Environment to produce a numbered list of items. The format of the label numbering depends on the nesting level of this environment; see below. The default top-level numbering is ‘1.’, ‘2.’, etc. Each enumerate list environment must have at least one item; having none causes the LaTeX error ‘Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item’.

This example gives the first two finishers in the 1908 Olympic marathon. As a top-level list the labels would come out as ‘1.’ and ‘2.’.

\begin{enumerate}
 \item Johnny Hayes (USA)
 \item Charles Hefferon (RSA) 
\end{enumerate}

Start list items with the \item command (see \item: An entry in a list). If you give \item an optional argument by following it with square brackets, as in \item[Interstitial label], then the next item will continue the interrupted sequence (see \item: An entry in a list). That is, you will get labels like ‘1.’, then ‘Interstitial label’, then ‘2.’. Following the \item is optional text, which may contain multiple paragraphs.

Enumerations may be nested within other enumerate environments, or within any paragraph-making environment such as itemize (see itemize), up to four levels deep. This gives LaTeX’s default for the format at each nesting level, where 1 is the top level, the outermost level.

1. arabic number followed by a period: ‘1.’, ‘2.’, …
2. lowercase letter inside parentheses: ‘(a)’, ‘(b)’ …
3. lowercase roman numeral followed by a period: ‘i.’, ‘ii.’, …
4. uppercase letter followed by a period: ‘A.’, ‘B.’, …

The enumerate environment uses the counters \enumi through \enumiv (see Counters).

For other major LaTeX labeled list environments, see description and itemize. For information about list layout parameters, including the default values, and for information about customizing list layout, see list. The package enumitem is useful for customizing lists.

To change the format of the label use \renewcommand (see \newcommand & \renewcommand) on the commands \labelenumi through \labelenumiv. For instance, this first level list will be labelled with uppercase letters, in boldface, and without a trailing period.

\renewcommand{\labelenumi}{\textbf{\Alph{enumi}}}
\begin{enumerate}
  \item Shows as boldface A
  \item Shows as boldface B
\end{enumerate}

For a list of counter-labeling commands see \alph \Alph \arabic \roman \Roman \fnsymbol: Printing counters.