Resuming a list

Question

I'd like to be able to resume an enumerated list, continuing the old numbering, after some intervening text which should not be formatted like a list item. Is there a nice way to do this?

In particular, I don't want to start a second list with a hard-coded initial counter value, because that will break if I change the number of items in the first list.

Answer 1

This can easily be done using the enumitem package, for example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
  \item One
  \item Two
  \end{enumerate}
Some text
\begin{enumerate}[resume]
  \item Three
\end{enumerate}
\end{document} 

Output:

If you use \usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem} and have configured labels (e.g., using \begin{enumerate}[(1)]), you can carry over this formatting by using [resume*].

Alternatively, the package mdwlist provides the commands \suspend and \resume for temporarily ending a list and restarting it.

Answer 2

Just save the counter and then restore it. There's no reason to use packages for things like this.

\documentclass{article}

\newcounter{nameOfYourChoice}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}
\item Foo
\setcounter{nameOfYourChoice}{\value{enumi}}
\end{enumerate}

Foo

\begin{enumerate}
\setcounter{enumi}{\value{nameOfYourChoice}}
\item Foo
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Answer 3

The question How to have the same counter in two enumerate lists? was closed as a duplicate of this one but introduced a slight difference: one of the pieces of the enumeration was inside a theorem environment. When using enumitem this needs special handling. The solution is contained in Mark Meckes comment on Carl's answer above, but in light of the new question I thought it instructive to give an example.

First, the non-working code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}
\begin{document}
\begin{theorem} We are in the theorem environment,
\begin{enumerate}
\item\label{condition1}the first condition,
\item\label{condition2}the second condition,
\end{enumerate}
\end{theorem}

We have exited the theorem environment. We also have one more condition,

\begin{enumerate}[resume]
\item\label{condition3}\emph{the third condition}.
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

When TeXed, the third condition has the incorrect number 1. Commenting out the \begin{theorem} and \end{theorem} lines gives it the correct number 3.

The correct way to correct this is to use the series key. This is explained in Section 3.5 of the enumitem manual. The feature was introduced in Version 3.0.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}
\begin{document}
\begin{theorem} We are in the theorem environment,
\begin{enumerate}[series=theoremconditions]
\item\label{condition1}the first condition,
\item\label{condition2}the second condition,
\end{enumerate}
\end{theorem}

We have exited the theorem environment. We also have one more condition,

\begin{enumerate}[resume=theoremconditions]
\item\label{condition3}\emph{the third condition}.
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

This produces the correct numbering. It can also handle having arbitrary stuff in between, including other lists.

Here's the same example with the labels modified (see How to have the same counter in two enumerate lists?), also showing the use of the resume* variant.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}

\begin{document}
\begin{theorem} We are in the theorem environment,
  \begin{enumerate}[label=(\roman*),series=theoremconditions]
    \item \label{condition1}the first condition,
    \item \label{condition2}the second condition,
  \end{enumerate}
\end{theorem}

We havve exited the theorem environment. We also have one more condition,
\begin{enumerate}[resume*=theoremconditions]
  \item \label{condition3}\emph{the third condition}
\end{enumerate}

\begin{theorem}
  We have another theorem, based on \ref{condition3}.
\end{theorem}
\end{document}

Answer 4

Here is a way if you don't want to do it by hand each time. We define a counter and make our own enumerate environment that uses that counter and doesn't reset it when we exit:

\documentclass{article}

\newcounter{myenumi}
\setcounter{myenumi}{0}

\newenvironment{myenumerate}{
\begin{enumerate} 
\setcounter{enumi}{\value{myenumi}}
}{
\setcounter{myenumi}{\value{enumi}}
\end{enumerate}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{myenumerate}
\item first one
\item second one
\end{myenumerate}
Now we've ended the enumeration.

Let's start enumerating again
\begin{myenumerate}
\item third
\item fourth.
\end{myenumerate}
We've ended again.

But we aren't done yet
\begin{myenumerate}
\item fifth
\item sixth
\end{myenumerate}
Shall we go on further?
\end{document}

But - if you want to start over, then you'll need to do \setcounter{myenumi}{0} again.

In my own writing of problem sets, I have myenumerate which resets the counter each time, and another environment continuemyenumerate which doesn't reset the counter so it starts from where the last myenumerate or continuemyenumerate left off. For example:

\newcounter{myenumi}
\setcounter{myenumi}{0}

\newenvironment{myenumerate}{
\setcounter{myenumi}{0}
\begin{enumerate} 
\setcounter{enumi}{\value{myenumi}}
}{
\setcounter{myenumi}{\value{enumi}}
\end{enumerate}
}

\newenvironment{continuemyenumerate}{
\begin{enumerate} 
\setcounter{enumi}{\value{myenumi}}
}{
\setcounter{myenumi}{\value{enumi}}
\end{enumerate}
}

Then I do

\begin{myenumerate}
   \item this is item 1
   \item this is item 2
\end{myenumerate}
Here is some text that I don't want to be in my list.
\begin{continuemyenumerate}
   \item this is item 3
\end{continuemyenumerate}
I could repeat this for more items if I wanted.

\begin{myenumerate}
\item This is back to item 1
\end{myenumerate}

Answer 5

A simple alternative way to do this is with the outlines package. With the outlines package, you can have a list with 4 levels of enumeration as well as a 0th layer of regular text. The levels are referenced by \0, \1, \2, \3 and \4 from plain text to most indented.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{outlines}
\begin{document}
\begin{outline}[enumerate]
\1 One
\1 Two
\0 Some text
\1 Three
\2 Sub-point to three
\1 Four
\end{outline}
\end{document} 

In order to count over the zero level, a little extra work is needed. We will define a new counter to keep track of the number of items in our ordered list, for any depth. The environment where this happens is called cenumerate-- as in, continuing to enumerate. To employ this environment at any level k in i, ii, iii or iv, just employ the command \renewcommand{outlinek}{cenumerate} before the start of your outline. Be warned, this will even continue to count across outlines! To reset the counter and return to default behavior, use the command \renewcommand{outlinek}{enumerate}. The code below demonstrates these ideas.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\newcounter{cenum}
\newcounter{cenumsaved}
\setcounter{cenumsaved}{0}
\newcommand{\labelcenum}{\arabic{cenum}.}
\newenvironment{cenumerate}%
{\begin{list}{\labelcenum}{\usecounter{cenum}}%
\setcounter{cenum}{\value{cenumsaved}}}%
{\setcounter{cenumsaved}{\value{cenum}}%
\end{list}}
\usepackage{outlines}
\begin{document}


\noindent \textit{This outline counts level one without stopping.}
\renewcommand{\outlinei}{cenumerate}
\begin{outline}
\1 One 
\1 Two  %\setcounter{outlinetemp}{\value{outlinei}}
\0 Some text
%\setcounter{\outlinei}{3}
\1 Three
\2 Sub-point to three
\1 Four
\end{outline}

\noindent \textit{This outline counts level two without stopping}
\renewcommand{\outlinei}{itemize}
\renewcommand{\outlineii}{cenumerate}
\setcounter{cenumsaved}{0}
\begin{outline}
\1 One 
\2 another point to one
\1 Two  %\setcounter{outlinetemp}{\value{outlinei}}
\2 another point to two
\0 Some text
%\setcounter{\outlinei}{3}
\1 Three
\2 Sub-point to three
\2 second sub-point to three
\1 Four
\end{outline}

\noindent \textit{Back to the default way}

\renewcommand{\outlinei}{enumerate}
\renewcommand{\outlineii}{enumerate}
\begin{outline}[enumerate]
\1 One
\1 Two 
\0 Some text
\1 Three 
\2 Sub-point to three
\1 Four
\end{outline}
\end{document}

Answer 6

With linguex this is just write \ex. text EnterEnter anywhere in the document, without enclosing it in any list environment:

\documentclass{article}    
\usepackage{linguex}    
\usepackage{lipsum} % for dummy text    
\begin{document}
\ex.  \lipsum[1][1-1]\par % end item always with a blank line (or \par) 
\ex.  \lipsum[2][1-3]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[3][1-1]\par 
\lipsum[4][1-4]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[5][1-3]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[6][1-1]\par 
\lipsum[7][1-4]\par 
\section*{Foo}
\lipsum[8][1-4]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[8][1-1]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[9][1-1]\par 
\lipsum[10][1-1]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[11][1-1]\par 
\ex.  \lipsum[12][1-1]\par 
\end{document}