The HTML
<ul> element represents an unordered list of items, typically rendered as a bulleted list.HTML Demo: <ul>
Output
- Milk
- Cheese
- Blue cheese
- Feta
| Content categories | Flow content, and if the <ul> element's children include at least one <li> element, palpable content. |
|---|---|
| Permitted content | Zero or more <li>, <script> and <template> elements. |
| Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
| Permitted parents | Any element that accepts flow content. |
| Permitted ARIA roles | directory, group, listbox, menu, menubar, radiogroup, tablist, toolbar, tree, presentation |
| DOM Interface | HTMLUListElement |
Attributes
This element includes the global attributes.
compact- This Boolean attribute hints that the list should be rendered in a compact style. The interpretation of this attribute depends on the user agent, and it doesn't work in all browsers.
type- This attribute sets the bullet style for the list. The values defined under HTML3.2 and the transitional version of HTML 4.0/4.01 are:
circlediscsquare
A fourth bullet type has been defined in the WebTV interface, but not all browsers support it:triangle.If not present and if no CSSlist-style-typeproperty applies to the element, the user agent selects a bullet type depending on the nesting level of the list.
Usage notes
- The
<ul>element is for grouping a collection of items that do not have a numerical ordering, and their order in the list is meaningless. Typically, unordered-list items are displayed with a bullet, which can be of several forms, like a dot, a circle, or a square. The bullet style is not defined in the HTML description of the page, but in its associated CSS, using thelist-style-typeproperty. - The
<ul>and<ol>elements may be nested as deeply as desired. Moreover, the nested lists may alternate between<ol>and<ul>without restriction. - The
<ol>and<ul>elements both represent a list of items. They differ in that, with the<ol>element, the order is meaningful. As a rule of thumb to determine which one to use, try changing the order of the list items; if the meaning is changed, the<ol>element should be used, otherwise you can use<ul>.
Examples
Simple example
<ul>
<li>first item</li>
<li>second item</li>
<li>third item</li>
</ul>
The above HTML will output:
- first item
- second item
- third item
Nesting a list
<ul>
<li>first item</li>
<li>second item
<!-- Look, the closing </li> tag is not placed here! -->
<ul>
<li>second item first subitem</li>
<li>second item second subitem
<!-- Same for the second nested unordered list! -->
<ul>
<li>second item second subitem first sub-subitem</li>
<li>second item second subitem second sub-subitem</li>
<li>second item second subitem third sub-subitem</li>
</ul>
</li> <!-- Closing </li> tag for the li that
contains the third unordered list -->
<li>second item third subitem</li>
</ul>
<!-- Here is the closing </li> tag -->
</li>
<li>third item</li>
</ul>The above HTML will output:
- first item
- second item
- second item first subitem
- second item second subitem
- second item second subitem first sub-subitem
- second item second subitem second sub-subitem
- second item second subitem third sub-subitem
- second item third subitem
- third item
Ordered list inside unordered list
<ul>
<li>first item</li>
<li>second item
<!-- Look, the closing </li> tag is not placed here! -->
<ol>
<li>second item first subitem</li>
<li>second item second subitem</li>
<li>second item third subitem</li>
</ol>
<!-- Here is the closing </li> tag -->
</li>
<li>third item</li>
</ul>
The above HTML will output:
- first item
- second item
- second item first subitem
- second item second subitem
- second item third subitem
- third item
Specifications
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| HTML Living Standard The definition of '<ul>' in that specification. |
LSLiving Standard | |
| HTML5 The definition of '<ul>' in that specification. |
RECRecommendation |
Browser compatibility
Update compatibility data on GitHub
| Yes | 12 | 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | 12 | 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | 12 | 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Legend
- Full support
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See also
- Other list-related HTML Elements:
<ol>,<li>,<menu> - CSS properties that may be specially useful to style the
<ul>element:- the
list-styleproperty, to choose the way the ordinal displays - CSS counters, to handle complex nested lists
- the
line-heightproperty, to simulate the deprecatedcompactattribute - the
marginproperty, to control the list indentation
- the