# How can I make an enumerate list start at something other than 1?

Sometimes, I want to have enumerate lists in LaTeX start at other than the first value (1, a, i, etc.) How can I make an enumerate list start at an arbitrary value?

You can change the counter named enumi, like this:

\begin{enumerate}
\setcounter{enumi}{4}
\item fifth element
\end{enumerate}


(If you have lists at deeper levels of nesting, the relevant counters are enumii, enumiii and enumiv.)

• How do you start at (a) from the very beginning and not (1)? – John Molokach Jul 8 '15 at 15:23
• @JohnMolokach See tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2291/… (look at top two answers at least). – ShreevatsaR Jul 8 '15 at 15:38
• Thanks. I think for what I need, I'll just use \begin{enumerate} \begin{enumerate} lettered items \end{enumerate} numbered items \end{enumerate} – John Molokach Jul 8 '15 at 19:22
• @JohnMolokach That will indent it an extra level, and make it look ugly. Better to do it right, e.g. simply \usepackage{enumerate} at the top and use \begin{enumerate}[(a)] etc. Anyway, it's up to you. This question was about starting at something other than the first index, e.g. starting at (e) instead of (a), but I can see how the title is ambiguous. – ShreevatsaR Jul 8 '15 at 19:25
• If you want the first item to start at 0, you need to be sure to set the counter to -1. – Jonathan Geisler Sep 30 at 3:40

The enumitem package provides a simple solution to very many common problems that are related to minor tweaks of enumerate/itemize/description. In this case, you can use the start parameter. Also have a look at the resume parameter.

• I would just like to make explicit that the "resume" parameter causes the counter to continue from the previous "enumerate" environment. – Austin Mohr Jan 9 '14 at 5:37
• To be more explicit "resume"parameter causes the counter to continue from the previous "enumerate" environment in the current block. For example \begin{enumerate} \item 1 \end{enumerate} \begin{defn} \begin{enumerate} \item 1 \item 2 \end{enumerate} \end{defn} \begin{enumerate} \item This will be 2 \end{enumerate} – Dr. Dinesh J. Karia Nov 16 '16 at 7:16
• For people looking for a MWE using resume you can find one here – codeaviator Oct 3 '17 at 12:14
• FYI: enumitem with \begin{enumerate}[resume] is nice but not compatible with the paralist package's compactenum environment. – orbeckst Sep 6 at 17:27

If you only want to alter the starting value, the easiest way is:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\item This item is numbered 42.'
\begin{enumerate}\addtocounter{enumii}{5}% This cannot be more than 25
\item This one is numbered'' (f)'
\end{enumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}


While you can have six layers of nested list environments (itemize, description, enumerate), you can have no more than 4 of one type. The counters enumi through enumiv control the index of each item's label. You can increment (as shown) or decrement (add a negative value) all 4 levels.

Note, though, that this won't be entirely arbitrary. Levels enumerated alphabetically cannot have items after an item labeled 'z.' (You could, however, add a negative amount to the appropriate counter to get it back to the a' label.)

(Now that I see the other answer, I wonder why I always opt for the relative \addtocounter rather than the absolute \settocounter?)

• \addtocounter` is safer in that it ensures monotonicity when used mid-list. – equaeghe Mar 19 '14 at 10:22
• Doesn't work with 0. – Vorac Feb 25 '18 at 16:32