help label language dialog: label language
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Title
[D] label language -- Labels for variables and values in multiple
languages
Syntax
List defined languages
label language
Change labels to specified language name
label language languagename
Create new set of labels with specified language name
label language languagename, new [copy]
Rename current label set
label language languagename, rename
Delete specified label set
label language languagename, delete
Menu
Data > Data utilities > Label utilities > Set label language
Description
label language lets you create and use datasets that contain different
sets of data, variable, and value labels. A dataset might contain one
set in English, another in German, and a third in Spanish. A dataset may
contain up to 100 sets of labels.
We will write about the different sets as if they reflect different
spoken languages, but you need not use the multiple sets in this way.
You could create a dataset with one set of long labels and another set of
shorter ones.
One set of labels is in use at any instant, but a dataset may contain
multiple sets. You can choose among the sets by typing
. label language languagename
When other Stata commands produce output (such as describe and tabulate),
they use the currently set language. When you define or modify the
labels by using the other label commands (see [D] label), you modify the
current set.
label language (without arguments)
lists the available languages and the name of the current one.
The current language refers to the labels you will see if you
used, say, describe or tabulate. The available languages refer
to the names of the other sets of previously created labels. For
instance, you might currently be using the labels in en
(English), but labels in de (German) and es (Spanish) may also be
available.
label language languagename
changes the labels to those of the specified language. For
instance, if label language revealed that en, de, and es were
available, typing label language de would change the current
language to de.
label language languagename, new
allows you to create a new set of labels and collectively name
them languagename. You may name the set as you please, as long
as the name does not exceed 24 characters. If the labels
correspond to spoken languages, we recommend that you use the
language's ISO 639-1 two-letter code, such as en for English, de
for German, and es for Spanish. For a complete list of codes,
see http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/iso639jac.html.
label language languagename, rename
changes the name of the label set currently in use. If the label
set in use were named default and you now wanted to change that
to en, you could type label language en, rename.
Our choice of the name default in the example was not accidental.
If you have not yet used label language to create a new language,
the dataset will have one language, named default.
label language languagename, delete
deletes the specified label set. If languagename is also the
current language, one of the other available languages becomes
the current language.
Option
copy is used with label language, new and copies the labels from the
current language to the new language.
Examples
Setup
. webuse autom
List defined languages
. label language
Change labels to es
. label language es
Describe data
. describe
Rename current label set to Spanish
. label language Spanish, rename
Saved results
label language without arguments saves the following in r():
Scalars
r(k) number of languages defined
Macros
r(languages) list of languages, listed one after the other
r(language) name of current language
Also see
Manual: [D] label language
Help: [D] codebook, [D] label, [D] labelbook
