Displaying in columns

Question

How to display <li> elements in columns, with 4 elements in each column?

<ul>
  <li>1</li>
  <li>2</li>
  <li>3</li>
  <li>4</li>
  <li>5</li>
</ul>

Displayed like this:

1 5
2
3
4

UPD. Number of 'li' elements is unknown

Answer 1

display:grid and :nth-child(n) could help latest browsers :

See : https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/complete-guide-grid/ about grid CSS.

ul {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-rows: repeat(4, 1fr);
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fill, minmax(50px, 1fr));/*set you own values*/
  /*demo purpose*/
  counter-reset: lis;
}

li {
  display: block;
  counter-increment: lis;
}

li:before {
  content: counter(lis);
  /* end demo purpose */
}

li:nth-child(4n - 1) {
  grid-row: 3;
  color: blue;
}

li:nth-child(4n) {
  grid-row: 4;
  color: purple;
}

li:nth-child(4n - 2) {
  grid-row: 2;
  color: green;
}

li:nth-child(4n - 3) {
  grid-row: 1;
  color: red;
}

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

Answer 2

Try using a flexbox.

.flex-container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  background-color: DodgerBlue;
  height: 400px;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
}

.flex-container>div {
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  width: 100px;
  margin: 10px;
  text-align: center;
  line-height: 75px;
  font-size: 30px;
}

<div class="flex-container">
  <div>1</div>
  <div>2</div>
  <div>3</div>  
  <div>4</div>  
  <div>5</div>  
  <div>6</div>    
</div>

Answer 3

You can try this:

ul {
  display: inline;
  padding-left: 0;
}

li {
  display: inline-block;
}

<ul>
<li>1</li>
<li>2</li>
<li>3</li>
<li>4</li>
<li>5</li>
</ul>