Re: st: import excel and value labels

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

Since you -clear- the memory by specifying the respective option, it
seems natural to me. It is the same as

clear
la de foo 1 "foo"
sysuse auto ,clear
la li foo

However, defined value labels are also cleared if we do not sepcify
the -clear- option.

clear
la de foo 1 "foo"
sysuse auto
la li

This makes me wonder about the "status" of value labels. They
obviously are not regarded as changes to the dataset -- otherwise
there would be therespective error message and return code  r(4) . One
migth argue that there should be a similar error message to remind you
of the fact that you are about to lose your defined value labels - but
cerainly not if you explicitly specified a -clear- option.

See -label save- for a way to preserve the value labels before
importing a dataset.

Best
Daniel

-- 
I noticed that whenever I load an excel file in Stata using -import
excel- the existing values labels are deleted.  Is this the normal
behavior of -import excel-?

Here is an example:

. label define test 1 "yes" 2 "no"

. label l test
test:
           1 yes
           2 no

. import excel book1.xlsx, clear first

. label l test
value label test not found
r(111);
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