# In align environment, how can you label some (but not all) of the equations?

I know that the align environment labels all the lines, while the align* environment labels none of the lines. Is there a way to have the align environment label only some of the lines?

For example, suppose I have something like this:

\begin{align}
x+y
\\
x-y
\\
xy
\end{align}


This labels all three lines. Is there a way to only label, say, the second line (x-y)?

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Related question: Suppress equation number when not refered to –  Martin Scharrer Aug 24 '11 at 18:41

## 2 Answers

Use the command \notag

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{align}
x+y
\notag\\
x-y
\\
xy
\end{align}
\end{document}


EDIT: You can also use the command \nonumber (see comment)

EDIT: If you want to tag only one equation you can use \tag. In the following example I combine the command \tag with \refstepcounter to create the command \tabeq

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newcommand*\tageq{\refstepcounter{equation}\tag{\theequation}}
\begin{document}
\begin{align*}
x+y
\\
x-y \tageq\label{1}
\\
xy
\end{align*}

\ref{1}
\end{document}

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For standard LaTeX math environments you can also use \nonumber, but amsmath is recommended which uses \notag. There is also \tag{<label>} which allows you to set any other text instead of the number. –  Martin Scharrer Aug 24 '11 at 18:37
You need to \notag the third line as well... –  Seamus Aug 24 '11 at 20:41
Thanks! This is really useful! One question I still have though is, if I only want to tag one equation out of many, is there a way to do it without using \notag a bunch of times? Is there a way to use \tag in an align* environment but to have it follow the numbering of the document? –  Alan C Aug 25 '11 at 4:24
@Alan C: I edit my post. –  Marco Daniel Aug 25 '11 at 16:13
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\mathtoolsset{showonlyrefs}
\begin{document}

\begin{align}
y &= x+y \\
y &= x-y \label{1} \\
y &= xy
\end{align}

See Eqn.~\refeq{1} \ldots
\end{document}


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