counter.md

Counter

Counters are, in essence, variables maintained by CSS whose values may be incremented by CSS rules to track how many times they're used.

HTML

<ul>
  <li>List item</li>
  <li>List item</li>
  <li>
    List item
    <ul>
      <li>List item</li>
      <li>List item</li>
      <li>List item</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

CSS

ul {
  counter-reset: counter;
}

li::before {
  counter-increment: counter;
  content: counters(counter, '.') ' ';
}

Demo

Explanation

You can create a ordered list using any type of HTML.

1. counter-reset Initializes a counter, the value is the name of the counter. By default, the counter starts in 0. This property can also be used to change its value to any specific number.

2. counter-increment Used in element that will be countable. Once counter-reset initialized, a counter's value can be increased or decreased.

3. counter(name, style) Displays the value of a section counter. Generally used in a content property. This function can receive two parameters, the first as the name of the counter and the second one can be decimal or upper-roman (decimal by default).

4. counters(counter, string, style) Displays the value of a section counter. Generally used in a content property. This function can receive three parameters, the first as the name of the counter, the second one you can include a string which comes after the counter and the third one can be decimal or upper-roman (decimal by default).

5. A CSS counter can be especially useful for making outlined lists, because a new instance of the counter is automatically created in child elements. Using the counters() function, separating text can be inserted between different levels of nested counters.

Browser support

✅ No caveats.

• https://caniuse.com/#feat=css-counters