enumitem: How can I make a custom label for a specific entry in a list?

Question

I am writing a list of questions:

\begin{enumerate}
    \item This is a question.
    \item This is another one.
    \item This one is a hard one, I want to add an asterisk to the label.
    \item This one is another ordinary question.
\end{enumerate}

On the third entry, I want an asterisk in front of the label number. A naive approach would be this:

\begin{enumerate}
    \item This is a question.
    \item This is another one.
    \item[*3.] This one is a hard one, I want to add an asterisk to the label.
    \item This one is another ordinary question.
\end{enumerate}

I would expect the output to look like this:

...
...

*3. ...

...

However the output is this:

...
...

*3. ...

...

Is there a way to do this?

score 0 · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-11T14:29:47.413

A dirty solution. Separate into more enum and add \setcounter{enumi}.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
    \item This is a question.
    \item This is another one.
    \item[*3.] This one is a hard one, I want to add an asterisk to the label.
    \end{enumerate}   
    \begin{enumerate}
    \setcounter{enumi}{3}
    \item This one is another ordinary question.
    \item And more\ldots
\end{enumerate}
\begin{enumerate}
    \item [*6.]This one is another hard question.
\end{enumerate}
\begin{enumerate}
\setcounter{enumi}{6}
\item And more\ldots
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '19 at 15:29

Another dirty solution: each time you want a star, redefine the macro \theenumi that prints the item number, and redefine it back to normal for regular items. Does not work with the enumitem package.

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\let\olditem\item
\def\item{\def\theenumi{\arabic{enumi}}\olditem}
\def\itemstar{\def\theenumi{*\arabic{enumi}}\olditem}

\begin{enumerate}
    \item This is a question.
    \item This is another one.
    \itemstar This one is a hard one, I want to add an asterisk to the label.
    \item This one is another ordinary question.
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Result:

enumitem: How can I make a custom label for a specific entry in a list?

2 Answers2