# Itemize with a dash "-" instead of a bullet

If I use

\begin{itemize}
\item asdasd
\item dsfsdf
\end{itemize}


the items are with a bullet, but how can I itemize these two with a "-" (a dash / a hyphen / a small line)?

• Welcome to TeX.sx! Your question was migrated here from Stack Overflow. Please register on this site, too, and make sure that both accounts are associated with each other (by using the same OpenID), otherwise you won't be able to comment on or accept answers or edit your question.
– Werner
Jul 7 '12 at 14:22
• I had the same issue, but I had a silly mistake. \end{itemize} was missing on one of the earlier pages. Jun 21 '18 at 9:33

One-at-a-time method:

\begin{itemize}
\item[--] asdasd
\item[--] dsfsdf
\end{itemize}


Set all first-level bullet-point to --:

At preamble, in plain-TeX

\def\labelitemi{--}


or in LaTeX

\renewcommand\labelitemi{---}


These have the same effect, but if you want all your definitions to look similar you can prefer one over the other.

Set the first-level bullet-point to -- only in one itemize environment:

\begin{itemize}
\renewcommand\labelitemi{--}
\item asdasd
\item dsfsdf
\end{itemize}

• Note that there's no reason that it would have to be two dashes instead of one; this would work equally well as \item[-].
– Tyler McHenry
Mar 13 '10 at 15:35
• @Tyler: - (hyphen) is shorter than -- (en-dash). Mar 13 '10 at 15:35
• @Tyler except that it is poorer typographical style, I believe.
– Vasily Korolev
Mar 13 '10 at 15:41
• @Vasily I would not say "poorer"; it's a poor style (it's a thing you want to do when you want to look like MSWord).
– yo'
Jul 7 '12 at 11:53
• @picco's answer is what's needed here, I'd say. Jul 11 '14 at 17:01

For reference, here's a package-wise approach using the (de-facto) list manipulation package, enumitem:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}% http://ctan.org/pkg/enumitem
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}[label={--}]
\item asdasd
\item dsfsdf
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

• You can also set defaults with \setlist[⟨names⟩,⟨levels⟩]{⟨keys/values⟩}. See the enumitem documentation. I have an answer here that gives some settings I like in a beamer presentation. Apr 13 '21 at 19:37
% before \begin{document}
\usepackage{enumerate}

% after \begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}[-]
\item asdasd
\item dsfdsf
\end{enumerate}


Ideally, the enumerate package is already in MiKTeX so you need not download it.

• Welcome to TeX.sx! You can format code using the {} button in the edit window or by indenting the code by four blank spaces. Feb 28 '13 at 11:14
• @picco: enumerate is a latex “required” package; a distribution that doesn't contain it is non-conforming. so idealism ought not to be required... Feb 28 '13 at 14:55
• This totally looks like an up-to-date best practice to me. Feb 28 '13 at 17:31
• This is clearly the best answer! Jul 11 '14 at 16:52

A much better looking results are obtained if one uses math minus symbol instead of en-dash:

\begin{itemize}
\item[$-$] asdasd
\item[$-$] dsfsdf
\end{itemize}


The alternative solution for whole document/representation:

\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist[itemize]{itemsep=10pt, label={--}}

• Use \setlist[itemize]{...}. The command \setitemizewas deprecated 8 years ago. Mar 21 '19 at 14:19
• Thanks. I changed. Mar 21 '19 at 14:28

Use package enumitem with parameter shortlabels:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}
\begin{document}
Remember use shortlabels'' parameter
\begin{itemize}[-]
\item aaa
\item bbb
\end{itemize}
\end{document}


To use bold dash, replace [-] by [\textbf{-}]; or longer dash, replace [-] by [--]. To use +, replace [-] by [+].