Declan Trott
>
> This is probably impossible, but when I create new
> variables by renaming or
> transforming old ones, I would like to be able to give the
> new variables
> the same variable labels as the old ones without having to
> type out "label
> variable varname text" for each new variable.
>
> eg I have a collection of information on different houses
> and the variable
> "x" is the number of bedrooms. First I want to rename x as
> something more
> intuitive:
>
> generate bedrooms = x
>
> And then I create dummy variables for each value of
> bedrooms that occurs in
> the data:
>
> tab bedrooms, generate(bedrooms)
>
> Is there any way that I can give each of the bedrooms
> dummies (bedrooms1,
> bedrooms2 etc) the same variable label as x without having
> to type the
> "label . . ." command individually for each one?
>
> Probably impossible since variable labels, unlike value
> labels, aren't
> defined with names of their own independent from the
> variable they are
> attached to.
Not impossible at all. First, there is an undocumented
command which does this.
_crcslbl newvar oldvar
copies the variable label of oldvar to newvar. (If
you like, think of the syntax as a terse way of
saying
give the same label (slbl) to newvar as that of oldvar
("crc" is a small piece of history codified in syntax,
as Computing Resource Center was the company preceding
Stata Corp).)
Second, on SSC there is a more general command called
-copydesc- which copies the variable label -- and other
properties as well. The author of this command evidently
didn't like the syntax of -_crcslbl-, as you have
to go
copydesc oldvar newvar
What I guess was in the author's mind was the idea
that you
copy the descriptive properties of oldvar to newvar
However, the difference in syntax is trivial. What's
more notable is that other things will be copied
apart from the variable label.
Third, the route from first principles is worth
reporting.
local lbl : variable label oldvar
label var newvar `"`lbl'"'
The compound double quotes here are an
example of programmer's paranoia. Very likely
you would be all right with
label var newvar "`lbl'"
For one variable, that is likely to be no gain
on typing out the label directly. But it is
what underlies the other commands.
You want to do this for a bunch of variables.
The literal answer to your question is
foreach v of var bedroom? {
_crcslbl `v' bedroom
}
or
foreach v of var bedroom? {
copydesc bedroom `v'
}
or
local lbl : variable label bedroom
foreach v of var bedroom? {
label var `v' `"`lbl'"'
}
The last has the advantage from Stata's
point view that it is faster to execute.
It has the advantage from your point of
view that you have learnt a small fundamental
of Stata which may come in useful.
Otherwise of course you might want to save
on your typing at the cost of learning another
command.
Nick
[email protected]
P.S. my syntax assumes no more than 9 bedrooms.
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
