“found in the list” or “found on the list”

Question

I usually have some doubts when I have to use prepositions, and one of my most frequent ones is when I should use “in” and when I should use “on”.

For example:

Returns true if the profile is found in the list, false otherwise.

Is it OK to say “in”, or should I use “on” there? Is there any strict rule about using “in” or “on”?

Answer 1

“In” implies boundaries in two or more directions. With a list, especially in coding, it’s entirely appropriate to say “in the list” in reference to something within the start and end boundaries of the list.

“On” suggests a floor of some kind, that is to say a surface that provides a lower boundary. With so many lists made on paper, it will not sound strange to say “on a list” because the list can be thought of as existing on a surface.

Summary: In this case, it’s up to you! The former seems more context-appropriate if you ask me, but neither should offend anybody. You’re either being more literal (“in”) or more figurative (“on”).

Answer 2

I was an English teacher for years, and in those days, the only preposition acceptable with "list" was "on." In fact, to write "in the list," was considered a mistake. It's obvious to me that the graphic idea that comes to mind when one talks about a list, is the flat surface of a piece of paper ON which the different items will be written. By definition, a "list" will never have the clearly defined boundaries of items for which we would unhesitatingly use the preposition IN, such as a box or a drawer.

It seems to me that in the current politically correct world, lots of people are bending over backwards in order no to have to tell those with a tenuous grasp of the English grammar that they are simply wrong. In

Answer 3

I meant to comment on Julian's answer but do not have enough reputation.

I am a Chinese and English language is not my mother tongue so I am in no place of providing "answers" to a question like this. But would like to give my two pennies as an IT professional.

In almost all the programming languages today, there is a "list" data type, which may have an alternative name like an "array" or something else. List and array may co-exist in some languages as two different data types, which is beyond the discussions here.

"Lists" in a programming language now do have boundaries and they serve like containers with elements "in" them. Because of that I tend to use "in a list" in my everyday life outside of work and coding.