Re: st: Retaining variable labels when converting from wide to long form

[daniel klein <klein.daniel.81@gmail.com>]

Tim,

have a look at -longshape- (Cox, SSC). I never used it, but it might
do what you want.

Best
Daniel
-- 
Hi there

I've converted a .dta file which was in the following format to the long
form to analyse the responses of each individual surveyed:

[...]
Using the command:

reshape long m1_@ m2_@ m3a1_@ m3a2_@ m3b_@ m4a_@ m4b_@ m5a_@ m5b_@ m6_@ m7_@
m8_@ m9_@ m10_@ m11a1_@ m11a2_@ m11b1_@ m11b2_@ m12_@ m13a1_@ m13a2_@ m14_@
m15a1_@ m15a2_@ m15b1_@ m15b2_@ m16_@ m17_@ m18_@ m19_@ m20_@ m21_@ m22_@
m23_@ m24_@ m25_@ m26_@ m27_@ m28_@ m29_@ m30_@ m31_@ m32_@ m33_@ m34_@
m35_@ m36_@ m37_@ m38_@ m39_@ m40_@, i(serial) j(id 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
09 10)

[...]
The problem is that in the process I lose the variable labels (i.e. m1_ is
no longer labelled "1. gender" and so on).
Does anyone know how to preserve the variable (without relabelling or
renaming each variable)?

I notice that if I omit the specification "j(id 01...)" from the command
above, the labels are preserved but because of the naming convention used
for the variables (m1_01 to _10 and so on), running this command does not
transform the data correctly.

Also for future reference does anyone know how to write this command more
succinctly?  If I summarise the new variable names in the format recommended
in the varlist help file (e.g. "m16_@-m40_@"), I get an "implied name too
long" error.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Kind regards

Tim Stapleton
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/resources/statalist-faq/
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/