How to itemize as [1], [2] in LaTeX?

Question

I want to itemize as
[1] sentences
[2] sentences....

But if I type

\begin{description} \itemsep -2pt % Reduce space between items
\item[[1]] sentences
\end{description}

in latex, it appears

[1 ] sentences

And if I type

\begin{description} \itemsep -2pt % Reduce space between items
\item[$[1]$] sentences
\end{description}

in latex, it gives me error.

How can I do it?

Rather then description, are you looking for itemize or enumerate? You can customize those environments using package enumitem. — Johannes_B, Oct 11 '15 at 15:30
Also consider package paralist which adds the possibility of having in-line enumeration. — JPi, Oct 11 '15 at 15:31
are the items going to be enumerated consecutively, or could there be gaps? — Mico, Oct 11 '15 at 15:34
Welcome to [tex.se]! It is usually best to include a minimal working example (MWE) demonstrating which documentclass you are using. — Andrew Swann, Oct 11 '15 at 15:55

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 11 '15 at 16:40

7

Using description is problematic. Why not enumerate or itemize? But, in any case, you should put [1] in a group, e.g., \item[{[1]}]. If LaTeX in this context looks for a closing ], it simply closes all from beginning [. Hence from \item[[1]] you have [1 and the next ] is not an argument, but the beginning of text following it.

edited Oct 11 '15 at 16:40

Mico

506,678

answered Oct 11 '15 at 15:31

Przemysław Scherwentke

37,268

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 11 '15 at 19:29

4

\usepackage{enumitem} and in the body of your document:

\begin{enumerate}[label={[\arabic*]}, noitemsep]
\item First item
\item Second item
................
\end{enumerate}

should do the trick.

edited Oct 11 '15 at 19:29

egreg

1,121,712

answered Oct 11 '15 at 15:35

Bernard

271,350

Hmm, did you test it? I see at least two problems. – egreg Oct 11 '15 at 18:20
To be frank, I didn't, as there was no minimal example. Now that you point it (thanks!), I can see one (double ?) problem. I've corrected it. Is there anything else? – Bernard Oct 11 '15 at 18:33

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '15 at 15:36

0

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{paralist, blindtext}

\begin{document}

Let us start. And 
\begin{inparaenum}[(1)]
  \item whatever goes below
  \item and up again
\end{inparaenum}
will be treated as nonsense that it is...
\end{document}

But I'm failing to have the items numbered [1].

answered Oct 11 '15 at 15:36

Keks Dose

30,892

2

Quote the braces: \begin{inparaenum}[{[}1{]}] – Andrew Swann Oct 11 '15 at 15:53

How to itemize as [1], [2] in LaTeX?

3 Answers3