Eric Uslaner
>
> Yesterday I posted a query that Nick Cox kindly answered:
>
> >
> > I have an Excel spreadsheet (someone else created it) with
> > three worksheets. Two have data sets that I have
> > transferred by cutting and pasting into Stata and merging.
> > The third has four columns:
> >
> > Column 1: variable name data set 1
> > Column 2: variable label data set 1
> > Column 3: variable name data set 2
> > Column 4: variable label data set 2
> >
> > Is there a way to link the variable names and labels (by
> > cutting and pasting?) into the merged data set without
> > having to retype each of the labels? I presume that you
> > can't do all of this at once, if at all, but column by
> > column would be great.
>
> I think you need to import the names and
> labels into the data set to which they apply.
>
> Let's suppose your variables to be renamed
> are in <varlist> and their proper names are in -ericsnames-
> and their proper variable labels are in -ericslabels-:
>
> local i = 1
> foreach v of var <varlist> {
> label var `v' `"`= ericslabels[`i']'"'
> rename `v' `= ericsnames[`i++']'
> }
>
> I'm assuming that the left-to-right order of
> variables maps onto the top-to-bottom order of names
> and labels.
>
>
> However, I am unsure of what I need to do. I now did a cut
> a paste from Excel and have a list of variable names and
> variable labels. But they are in (an otherwise empty)
> Stata data set labelled var1 and var2. Call this data set
> datasetlabels. The variables are in a data set called
> dataset. How do I merge the two together?
>
> Flying blind, I merged the two data sets and typed in, with
> the result:
>
> local i = 1
>
> . foreach v of var <varlist> {
> 2. label var `v' `"`= var2[`i']'"'
> 3. rename `v' `= var1[`i++']'
> 4. }
> < invalid name
>
> There is clearly something I am not understanding at a
> fundamental level. And I think it has to do with how to
> put the original data set together with the "data set"
> containing just the labels and the variable names (since
> the two data sets have different numbers of observations).
Stata's not going to like "<varlist>". You have to say what
your own varlist is.
I start with the raw data
. l
+--------------+
| v1 v2 v3 |
|--------------|
1. | 14 26 28 |
2. | 65 5 12 |
3. | 56 43 41 |
4. | 61 90 73 |
5. | 69 53 88 |
|--------------|
6. | 11 85 47 |
7. | 62 22 43 |
8. | 7 57 90 |
9. | 56 27 6 |
10. | 88 95 68 |
+--------------+
and then I add in the names and the labels:
. l
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| v1 v2 v3 names labels |
|--------------------------------------------------------|
1. | 14 26 28 frog This variable contains frog data |
2. | 65 5 12 toad This one is about toads. |
3. | 56 43 41 newt Newts in this column |
4. | 61 90 73 |
5. | 69 53 88 |
|--------------------------------------------------------|
6. | 11 85 47 |
7. | 62 22 43 |
8. | 7 57 90 |
9. | 56 27 6 |
10. | 88 95 68 |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
. local i = 1
. foreach v of var v? {
2. label var `v' `"`=labels[`i']'"'
3. rename `v' `= names[`i++']'
4. }
. l
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| frog toad newt names labels |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
1. | 14 26 28 frog This variable contains frog data |
2. | 65 5 12 toad This one is about toads. |
3. | 56 43 41 newt Newts in this column |
4. | 61 90 73 |
5. | 69 53 88 |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
6. | 11 85 47 |
7. | 62 22 43 |
8. | 7 57 90 |
9. | 56 27 6 |
10. | 88 95 68 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
. d
Contains data
obs: 10
vars: 5
size: 430 (99.9% of memory free)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
frog byte %8.0g This variable contains
frog data
toad byte %8.0g This one is about toads.
newt byte %8.0g Newts in this column
names str4 %9s
labels str32 %32s
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Sorted by:
Note: dataset has changed since last saved
Nick
[email protected]
*
* 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/
