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Answer 1

A:

Use names and IDs.

<dl id="1">

Document.getElementById("1");

https://developer.mozilla.org/En/DOM/Document.getElementById

oneat 2010-01-31 15:13:41

A nitpick: IDs cannot start with a number.

cpharmston 2010-02-01 02:33:02

Are you sure ??

oneat 2010-02-01 09:35:57

Answer 2

+1 A:

However as I need to be able to access each definition programmatically through Javascript I'm not sure that this would work.

Just get each definition term <dt> and then get the element next to it in the DOM tree, which should always be the definition description <dd>. jQuery is of great help in here. Here's an SSCCE, just copy'n'paste'n'run it:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <title>SO question 2172138</title>
        <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
        <script>
            $(document).ready(function() {
                $('#dl dt').each(function(i, dt) {
                    dt = $(dt);
                    dds = dt.nextAll().map(function() { return $(this).is('dd') ? this : false; });
                    alert(dt.text() + " = " + dds.text());
                });
            });
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <dl id="dl">
            <dt>Term1</dt><dd>Desc1a</dd><dd>Desc1b</dd>
            <dt>Term2</dt><dd>Desc2a</dd>
            <dt>Term3</dt><dd>Desc3a</dd><dd>Desc3b</dd>
        </dl>
    </body>
</html>

BalusC 2010-01-31 15:26:56

This doesn't take into account the perfectly valid use case of having multiple definitions per term.

cpharmston 2010-02-01 02:30:04

Lol, what an attitiude. Fixed, thanks ;)

BalusC 2010-02-01 03:06:18

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Marking up ordered definition list

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