[Tex/LaTex] How to change the number of enumerate items?

#enumeratenumbering

Ok, since this question seems to be pretty easy (well I still don't know the answer and didn't find something on this site), I'll try it without MWE: I'd like to know how to change the number of items in enumerate environments. Most appreciated would be solutions without additional packages or such…

\begin{enumerate}
  \item The fifth item
  \item The seventh item
\end{enumerate}

This should result in

5. The fifth item
7. The seventh item

and not in the normal items numbered 1 and 2. It probably has to do something with counters!?

Best Answer

Set the enumi counter and do it through a command for easiness (for a more general answer, see below):

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand\setItemnumber[1]{\setcounter{enumi}{\numexpr#1-1\relax}}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}
  \setItemnumber{5}
  \item The fifth item
  \setItemnumber{7}
  \item The seventh item
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Since the previous definition of the command uses enumi, the defined command \setItemnumber will only work for the first level for nested enumerates. Using the \@enumdepth counter (controlling the nesting depth for enumerated lists), the command can be improved so as to be used for every level in nested enumerations:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand\setItemnumber[1]{\setcounter{enum\romannumeral\@enumdepth}{\numexpr#1-1\relax}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}
  \setItemnumber{5}
  \item The fifth item
  \begin{enumerate}
    \setItemnumber{3}
    \item The third subitem
    \setItemnumber{9}
    \item The ninth subitem
  \end{enumerate}
  \setItemnumber{7}
  \item The seventh item
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

The result:

enter image description here

Use the optional argument for \item (but you loose in this way the possibility to do cross-references to those items):

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}
  \item[5.] The fifth item
  \item[7.] The seventh item
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Create an enumerate environment that can be turned off

For allowing nested enumerate (or other lists) environments to still function, you need to capture \item if you're going to make it a no-op inside this new on-off enumerate. For this we store its definition in the preamble and resture it for use at the beginning of every enuemrate using etoolbox's \AtBeginEnvironment. If you plan on nesting other lists as well, you need to restore \item in a similar manner.

Below I've defined enumerate* which is turned off during compilation, while it still supports nested enumerates:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\AtBeginEnvironment{enumerate}{\let\item\olditem}
\let\olditem\item
\newenvironment{enumerate*}
  {\par\let\item\relax}
  {\par}
\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate*}
  \item Something
    \begin{enumerate}
      \item Something else
      \item Another thing
        \begin{enumerate*}
          \item This is it
          \item This is another it
        \end{enumerate*}
    \end{enumerate}
  \item Last thing
\end{enumerate*}

\end{document}

enumerate* redefined \item to do nothing (be \relax). As such, it'll completely ignore any optional argument, if you have any. That is, \item[<stuff>] will default to [<stuff>]. That can be adjusted to gobble the optional argument, if needed.

One can also adjust the vertical adjustment inserted by enumerate*.

Indent individual \item in enumerate

I created a custom environment that deals with all the counter business (similar to what Dan suggested in his answer, but without the need of messing with the counters in the document itself). However, you would need a new environment for each layer of indention. This could be achieved by concatenating an additional i to each countername. (i.e. enumi->enumii and enumii->enumiii etc.. I demonstrated how that works for the 2nd level of indention)

Heres my code:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}

\newenvironment{enumindent}
{\begin{enumerate}[label=(\arabic*),start=\value{enumi},leftmargin=20pt] \stepcounter{enumii} }
    {\end{enumerate}\setcounter{enumi}{\value{enumii}}}
\newenvironment{enumindenttwice}
{\begin{enumerate}[label=(\arabic*),start=\value{enumii},leftmargin=20pt] \stepcounter{enumiii} }
    {\end{enumerate}\setcounter{enumii}{\value{enumiii}}}

\begin{document}
    
    \begin{enumerate}[(1)]
        \item \lipsum[2]
        \item \lipsum[2]
        \begin{enumindent}
            \item \lipsum[2]
            \item \lipsum[2]
            \begin{enumindenttwice}
                \item \lipsum[2]
                \item \lipsum[2]
            \end{enumindenttwice}
            \item \lipsum[2]
            \item \lipsum[2]
        \end{enumindent}
        \item \lipsum[2]
        \item \lipsum[2]
    \end{enumerate}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Create an enumerate environment that can be turned off

Indent individual \item in enumerate

Related Question