A variable name may contain only the digits 0 to 9 and upper or lower case english alphabets a to z. Why is stata giving me an r199 is not a valid command. The frequencies procedure can produce summary measures for categorical variables in the form of frequency tables, bar charts, or pie charts. The name of a variable is only as relevant as its scope. Furthermore, the name given to a variable, function, class, structure. You can also use stata to rename the column headers. Throughout, bold type will refer to stata commands, while le names, variables names, etc. The issue behind most limits is memory, but my strong impression is that the issue with variable names is just space to show results.
If you are creating multiple datasets in stata, you may wish to name them in an automated manner. It is fine to have behavior drag for a variable label, but not for a variable name. Variable names for spss data files the analytical group. A variable name cannot contain any special characters other than. Learn more about string to variable, string, variable matlab. In this section we discuss how to read raw data files. There is no point in endless discussions about a name of a variable which will only be read by a person reading that particular small scoped piece of code. If the same mata functions are used by the syntax internally, then this can explain the above behavior. How do i get sas to swap variable names and labels.
How to replace if all variables instead of any one of. If the label is to be used, but no transformation option is provided, the variable label is converted to a valid stata variable name. When generating a new variable method 1 1 using nick coxs labgen. Then adding variable sex does not affect the outcome of the merge because sex is constant within id. I can add variable sex to the key variables of the merge use one, clear. This post demonstrates how to create new variables, recode existing variables and label variables and values of variables. A variable provides us with named storage that our programs can manipulate. Statalist postfile, using variable name not value or label.
Stata ships with a number of small datasets, type sysuse dir to get a list. If all is well, the contents of the option is stored in a local macro with the same name as the option, here generate. This article is part of the stata for students series. Subsequent characters can be english letters, numeric digits, or underscores. On the other hand, class names and member names need to clearly indicate what is going on.
Construct valid variable name from string matlab genvarname. Creating a new variable in a dataset occurs within a data step. The limit on length of variable names is in recent versions of stata 32 characters and not adjustable. Not all characters in the keyboard, however, are allowed in naming variables. In this article youll learn how to create new variables and change existing variables.
To run the frequencies procedure, click analyze descriptive statistics frequencies a variables. The key here is that stata is not actually using the name ss02101 as a variable name. To include a variable for analysis, doubleclick on its name to move it to the variables box. There are various solutions but the one i would try first is not anything that requires you to type the variable name. Date type is deal with the string type and conversion functions. Here is an example that cuts the variable names at the fifth character. Spss supports numeric and character field types that map directly to sas numeric and character fields. Names id female race ses schtyp prog read write math science socst. On april 23, 2014, statalist moved from an email list to a forum. Title rename rename variable syntaxmenudescriptionremarks and examplesreferencesalso see syntax rename old varname new varname menu data data utilities rename groups of variables description rename changes the name of existing variable old varname to new varname. Spss sav files sas customer support site sas support. If you are new to stata we strongly recommend reading all the articles in the stata basics section. Imagine even a modest increase in variable name length to 64 characters. If one finds himself having to use a variable like accbalinsaving, then something is wrong about the design the variable carries too much context info that actually should be implicit.
Variables in a data frame in r always need to have a name. The command will not rename any variable unless all of the resulting new names. For example, to get the n, mean, and standard deviation of personal income, enter. Default type is float, single precision real number.
Variable names for spss data files the following rules apply to variable names when editing an spss data file in wincross. The first character must begin with an english letter or an underscore. Im trying to rename them all, but so far nothing works, perhaps because the name is invalid. The following are examples of valid variable names. All entries ranging from 1099 are all fine, but any from 19 are single digits, i. I am only interested in label names, so if there is a way to get sas to export labels instead of variable names, that will work for me too. In this case, the output of ds is guaranteed to be a varlist. Stata news, code tips and tricks, questions, and discussion. How to call a variable with user string input matlab. Stata is available on the pcs in the computer lab as well as on the unix system. If str is a string array or cell array of character vectors, genvarname returns a string array or cell array of character. If you didnt mind changing the existing data perhaps this is just a quick check of the data rather than creating a new variable to be added to the dataset, this could be done simply as. Please make sure your reprex is created with the reprex package as it. To access the variable names, you can again treat a data frame like a matrix and use the function colnames like this.
Illegal characters in stata variable names statalist. Rename variables with illegal character stata stack overflow. The command will not rename any variable unless all of the resulting new names specified are acceptable as new variable names. Example instead of 1 i actually need all these to be 01 and instead of 2 i need it. Stata does not accept numeric variable names, so import excel has to use the excel column name c, d, for the variable names instead of 2001, 2002. This formula approach to creating variables gives you some flexibility. Some of these methods assume that the values dont have spaces or symbols that stata wouldnt accept in the variable names otherwise, assign only the variable labels and then see below how to convert labels into names. Sas variable names can be up to 32 characters in length. Such a file naming process will 1 prevent you from giving the same filename to two different datasets assuming they are not created in the same minute. The general format is like an equation, with the name of the new variable on the left, and the formula for creating that new variable on the right. A stata variable name can contain up to 32 characters in any version of stata small, stataic, statase, or statamp. Stata modules for managing value and variable labels, statistical software components s402501, boston college department of economics, revised 23 nov 20. The code below demonstrates how to create a filename that is based on the date and timestamp.
In most programming languages, variable names cannot begin with numbers. Variable names may not be longer than 32 characters and are required to be shorter for some question types. Once you have the users input string and have created the variable name, you can use the eval function to access that variable. The goal of a reprex is to make it as easy as possible for me to recreate your problem so that i can fix it. Can you please provide a minimal reprex reproducible example. Now we need to do just a bit of work to check that the name is a valid variable name, which. Here we use the generate command to create a new variable representing population younger than 18 years. Looking for a certain variable in a dataset with so many variables, even if you yourself have created these variables, can sometimes test your patience. In case of a data frame, the colnames function lets. Here, the fundamental difference between an identifier and variable is that an identifier is a name given to entity in a program whereas, a variable is a name given to memory location, that is used to hold value, which may get modified during program execution. This module may be installed from within stata by typing ssc install labutil. The stata manual is clear about what a variable name may be, see 11.
Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. It can be loaded into stata, described, and partially listed as follows. Transformations that result in a name that is the same as the old name are ignored. Variable names can be 2 characters, but stata often. How do you use the commands rename, renpfix, and renvars to rename variable names. The stata website is also a repository for datasets used in the stata manuals and in a number of statistical books. The stata manual describes macros as the variables of stata programs. The main reason is to create a way to distinguish them from numeric constants. Store the descriptive statistics of a variable in a macro in stata. We are here to help, but wont do your homework or help you pirate software. Variable names are shown in green color in the questionnaire designer. Stata modules for managing value and variable labels.
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