mlabel()

[robert seru]

Inquiring whether it is possible to have mlabel() option in a twoway scatter graph to only label a few points rather than all

[Nick Cox]

Naturally, as some labels can always be empty strings, and in any case you can segregate code for the marker labels from the rest of the code.

sysuse auto, clear
l make
scatter mpg weight, ms(Oh) || scatter mpg weight if make == "Subaru", ms(none) mla(make) legend(off)

gen make2 = make if make == "Subaru" 
scatter mpg weight, ms(Oh) mla(make2)

[Rich Goldstein]

I know of no easy way to do this; however, this is the logic I have used: (1) make a clone (see "help clonevar") of the string variable you want to use for labels; (2) replace the values that you do NOT want to show up with missing/blank (i.e., " "); then use mlabel(varname) where varname is your new variable with blanks where you don't want a label; maybe someone else knows a better way?

added: crossed with Nick's more comprehensive response

[robert seru]

Thanks
I've tried out Nick Cox's and it worked perfectly.
Many thanks