Begin ordered list from 0 in Markdown

Question

I'm new to Markdown. I was writing something like:

# Table of Contents   0. Item 0   1. Item 1   2. Item 2 

But that generates a list that starts with 1, effectively rendering something like:

# Table of Contents 1. Item 0 2. Item 1 3. Item 2 

I want to start the list from zero. Is there an easy way to do that?

If not, I could simply rename all of my indices, but this is annoying when there are several items. Beginning a list from zero seems so natural to me, it's like beginning the index of an array from zero.

Answer 1

Simply: NO

Longer: YES, BUT

When you create ordered list in Markdown it is parsed to HTML ordered list, i.e.:

# Table of Contents  0. Item 0   1. Item 1   2. Item 2 

Will create:

<h1>Table of Contents</h1> <ol>   <li>Item 0</li>   <li>Item 1</li>   <li>Item 2</li> </ol> 

So as you can see, there is no data about starting number. If you want to start at certain number, unfortunately, you have to use pure HTML and write:

<ol start="0">   <li>Item 0</li>   <li>Item 1</li>   <li>Item 2</li> </ol> 

Answer 2

You can use HTML start tag:

<ol start="0">   <li> item 1</li>   <li> item 2</li>   <li> item 3</li> </ol> 

It's currently supported in all browsers: Internet Explorer 5.5+, Firefox 1+, Safari 1.3+, Opera 9.2+, Chrome 2+

Optionally you can use type tab for more sophisticated enumerating:

• type="1" - decimal (default style)
• type="a" - lower-alpha
• type="A" - upper-alpha
• type="i" - lower-roman
• type="I" - upper-roman