Numbering multiple paragraphs at once

Question

I am drawing up a document that has numbered paragraphs. 1-36 are numbered normally and I have no problems. However, on paragraph 37, I need something like:

35 Normal paragraph.

36 Normal paragraph.

37-46 The following paragraphs correspond to text text text text, text text.

47 Normal paragraph.

I'm numbering my paragraphs using:

\newcounter{xpar}
\setcounter{xpar}{1}
\newcommand{\xp}{\arabic{xpar}\stepcounter{xpar}.\hspace{.5in}}

Can anyone help me figure out how to number the paragraph with a 37-46, and then continue on with 47?

Answer 1

Add an optional argument for the "number of additional paragraphs" to the definition of your \xp macro. If the optional argument is empty, typeset the paragraph label as usual. If not, increase your custom counter as appropriate and also typeset the (new) label.

\documentclass{article}

\newcounter{xpar}
\newcommand{\xp}[1][]{%
  \stepcounter{xpar}%
  \arabic{xpar}%
  \ifx #1\empty
  \else
    \addtocounter{xpar}{#1}%
    --\arabic{xpar}%
  \fi
  .\hspace{.5in}\ignorespaces
}

\begin{document}

\xp Some text.

\xp[3] Some text.

\xp Some text.

\end{document}