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Variable List (Description List)

A variable list is a list where each entry has one or more terms and a description. They have many potential uses, but are often used for explanations of technical terms or jargon. When published, they are shown in rows and columns, so they look like a borderless table, but they do not have the underlying structure of a table. For HTML outputs, they use description list HTML tags (<dl>, <dt> and <dd>).

Example of a variable list in PDF output. It looks like a table with no borders or lines and each row has a term and a description.

Example of a variable list in PDF output.

Note

Variable lists have no relation to variable sets or variable content. The term variable list comes from the DocBook specification, where variablelist is the name of the element for this type of list.

To find out about variable sets and variable content, see Variables.

For instructions on how to create a variable list, see Create a Variable List.