Changing color of single line in Stata figure

[Claire McKenna]

I'm trying to change the color of just one line in my figure, featuring 4 lines. I'm fine with the default gray scale settings for all other lines, but for one line, I'd like to show it in color. What do I insert in the following snippet of code. Many thanks...

 line sm5_ex3_rec1 sm5_ex3_rec2 sm5_ex3_rec3 sm5_ex3_all year_month,
      xtitle("Base month") ytitle("Monthly job-finding rate")
      ylabel(0.1(.05).4)
      xlabel(708(12)743, format(%tmCCYY) notick) xtick(708(3)749, add)
      legend(cols(2)rows(2))
      title("Monthly job-finding rates for all unemployed workers," "by pre-pandemic recipiency")
      note("Notes: Data are not seasonally adjusted, and are smoothed using a 5-month symmetric" "triangle moving average.")
      saving(fig9, replace);

[Nick Cox]

Some variation on

lc(black black black red)

where the colo[u]rs and order are naturally your choice within the constraint of four colo[u]rs for four y-axis variables.

See also https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=gr0030 on labelling years and months for monthly data. (The paper uses quarters as an example, but the idea is the same.)

Searching the forum for mentions of gr0030 is also a possibility.

[Claire McKenna]

Perfect; thank you

[Nick Cox]

Here's a recipe for 3 years' worth of monthly data.

clear 
set obs 36
range mdate 708 743 

gen y = runiform() 

line y mdate, xtick(707.5(12)743.5, tlength(*3)) ///
xla(713.5(12)737.5, tlc(none) format(%tmCCYY)) xtitle("") xmti(708/744, tlength(*2))

[Claire McKenna]

Thank you! I like the x-axis labels better here (I'm showing 3.5 years of data)