When do you put a colon in a list?

Question

Is it like
Such as:
bought these:
The following:

I'm confuzzled! Help!

Answer 1

No, no, no!

Put a colon only after a complete sentence. "The following" and "bought these" work, but not "such as". For "such as" you would need no punctuation mark at all. Simply follow it with the list items.

At the store, John bought the following items: salmon, tuna, turkey, and mayo.

John bought many items at the store, such as salmon, tuna, turkey, and mayo.

Answer 2

A colon is used before a list of items, especially after the words the following or as follows.
The following students are to report to the office: Joe, Tom, and Mary.
The ingredients for the cookies are as follows: an egg, flour, and sugar.
A colon can also be used after using a number. Two players scored 20 points: Tom and Bob.

Answer 3

It would be Such as: and could also be the following. But the such as, and the following cannot be the first words of the sentence.
Example: There are many varieties of flowers, such as: blah, blah, blah.
When I was at the store I bought: blah, blah, blah.
Hope this helps.
Good luck to you, and Happy Holidays.

Answer 4

let me give you an example and i hope it helps.
Some of my favorite fruits are: apples, oranges, cherries, grapes and bananas.
I went to Gap and bought these: scarves, hats, socks, gloves and hoodies.
Hope I helped.