How do I center list items inside a UL element?

How do I center list items inside a ul without using extra divs or elements. I have the following. I thought text-align:center would do the trick. I can't seem to figure it out.

<style>
ul {
	width:100%;
	background:red;
	height:20px;
	text-align:center;
}
li {
	display:block;
	float:left;
	background:blue;
	color:white;
	margin-right:10px;
}
</style>

<ul>
  <li>test</li>
  <li>test</li>
  <li>test</li>
  <li>test</li>
  <li>test</li>
</ul>

Check jsfiddle http://jsfiddle.net/3Ezx2/1/

write display:inline-block instead of float:left.

li {
        display:inline-block;
        *display:inline; /*IE7*/
        *zoom:1; /*IE7*/
        background:blue;
        color:white;
        margin-right:10px;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/3Ezx2/3/

A more modern way is to use flexbox:

ul{
  list-style-type:none;
  display:flex;
  justify-content: center;

}
ul li{
  display: list-item;
  background: black;
  padding: 5px 10px;
  color:white;
  margin: 0 3px;
}
div{
  background: wheat;
}

<div>
<ul>
  <li>One</li>
  <li>Two</li>
  <li>Three</li>
</ul>  

</div>

li{
    display:table;
    margin:0px auto 0px auto;
}

This should work.

Looks like all you need is text-align: center; in ul

I have run into this issue before and found that sometimes padding is the issue.

By removing padding from the ul, any li's set to inline-block will be nicely centred:

* {
	box-sizing: border-box;
}

ul {
	width: 120px;
	margin: auto;
	text-align: center;
	border: 1px solid black;
}

li {
	display: inline-block;
}

ul.no_pad {
	padding: 0;
}

p {
	margin: auto;
	text-align: center;
}

.break {
	margin: 50px 10px;
}

<div>  
		<p>With Padding (Default Style)</p>
            <ul class="with_pad">
                <li>x</li>
                <li>x</li>
                <li>x</li>
                <li>x</li>
            </ul>
		<div class="break"></div>
		<p>No Padding (Padding: 0)</p>
			<ul class="no_pad">
                <li>x</li>
                <li>x</li>
                <li>x</li>
                <li>x</li>
            </ul>
	<div>

Hope that helps anyone running into this same issue :)

Cheers,

Jake

Another way to do this:

<ul>
  <li>One</li>
  <li>Two</li>
  <li>Three</li>
</ul>

ul {
  width: auto;
  display: table;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

ul li {
  float: left;
  list-style: none;
  margin-right: 1rem;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/f6qgf24m/

ul {
    width: 100%;
    background: red;
    height: 20px;
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
    align-items: center;
}

li {
    background: blue;
    color: white;
    margin-right: 10px;
}

I added the div line and it did the trick:

<div style="text-align:center">
<ul>
<li>test</li>
<li>test</li>
<li>test</li>
<li>test</li>
<li>test</li>
</ul>
</div>

I had a problem slimier to yours I this quick and its the best solution I have found so far.

What the output looks like

Shows what the output of the code looks like The borders are just to show the spacing and are not needed.

---

Html:

    <div class="center">
      <ul class="dots">
        <span>
          <li></li>
          <li></li>
          <li></li>
        </span>
      </ul>
    </div>

CSS:

    ul {list-style-type: none;}
    ul li{
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 2px;
        border: 2px solid black;
        border-radius: 5px;}
    .center{
        width: 100%;
        border: 3px solid black;}
    .dots{
        padding: 0px;
        border: 5px solid red;
        text-align: center;}
    span{
        width: 100%;
        border: 5px solid blue;}

---

Not everything here is needed to center the list items.

You can cut the css down to this to get the same effect:

    ul {list-style-type: none;}
    ul li{display: inline-block;}
    .center{width: 100%;}
    .dots{
        text-align: center;
        padding: 0px;}
    span{width: 100%;}

---

The thing is ul tag comes with default margin and padding, therefore all you need to do is:

ul {
    margin: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
}

Neither text-align:center nor display:inline-block worked for me on their own, but combining both did:

ul {
  text-align: center;
}
li {
  display: inline-block;
}

In Bootstrap (4) use display: inline-flex, like so:

li {
    display: inline-flex;
    /* ... */
}

// Ul css

ul{
  width: 100%;
  justify-content: center;
  list-style-type: none;
  display: flex;

}

// ul li css

ul li{
  display: inline;
}

I overcame the problem with this solution.

HTML:

<div class="list-wrapper">
    <ul>
        <li>a</li>
        <li>b</li>
        <li>c</li>
        <li>d</li>
        <li>e</li>
    </ul>
</div>

CSS:

.list-wrapper {
   text-align: -webkit-center;
}
.list-wrapper ul {
    display:block;
}