Changing the numeration of sections

I need to change the way the command `\section` enumerates the sections: I'd like my second section to be section number 4. (I don't want any section number 2 or three in my article).

Is this possible?

• Yes. Put `\setcounter{section}{3}` just before the second `\section`. And Welcome to TeX.SX! – karlkoeller Feb 23 '14 at 6:05

Put `\setcounter{section}{3}` just before the second `\section`.

The numbering of sectioning commands is governed by counters that have the same name as the command, e.g. for the `\section` command we have the counter `section`, for the `\subsection` command we have the counter `subsection`, and so on.

Each time a sectioning command is issued, the corresponding counter is incremented by one.

If you want to change this behavior manually, you have a few possibilities:

1. `\setcounter{counter}{value}`

Issuing this command you can set the value of `counter` to the specified `value`, e.g. `\setcounter{section}{3}` assigns the value 3 to the counter `section`.

2. `\addtocounter{counter}{value}`

Issuing this command you can increment the value of `counter` by the specified `value`, e.g. `\addtocounter{section}{2}` increments the counter `section` by a value of 2.

3. `\stepcounter{counter}`

The same as above but the increment is fixed at 1.

4. `\refstepcounter{counter}`

The same as above but useful when you're using a label/ref system for the counter.