giving each item in a EE loop a unique class without javascript?

Question

I'm trying to create an Expression Engine loop (channel entries) that outputs an unordered list with each list item being an individual entry. Easy enough. But I'd also like each list item it outputs to have a unique class. For example, li class="column_one", li class="column_two", etc.

Can the channel entries tag do this? or do I have to add the classes with javascript?

Answer 1

Surely you just output somehting like:

<li class="unique_{entry_id}">What ever you are outputting here?</li>

Or perhaps use {count} or similar?

Answer 2

Really common to use {count} for this, as suggested:

<li class="column_{count}">I'm item {count}</li>. 

I often combine {count} with {switch} and a truly unique identifier like {entry_id} like this:

<li class="list_{count} {switch='col1|col2'}" id="thing_{entry_id}">
  I'm Thing {entry_id) at List position {count} in Column {switch='col1|col2'}
</li>