Preserving variable labels when I use -collapse-

[Navid Asgari]

Hi all,

As you know, -collapse- does not preserve the label of variables that it operates on. For example if a variable is named "age" with the label "age of subject", after using

.collapse (mean) age, by (id)

the variable age gets a new name "(mean) age" and a label "(mean) age". Is it possible to keep the label when we use -collapse-?

Thanks,
Navid

[Clyde Schechter]

There is no option in -collapse- to retain the original label (though it might be a nice thing to put on the Wish List). But you can store the labels before you -collapse- and then re-apply them. For example:

//    STORE VARIABLE LABELS IN LOCAL MACROS
foreach v of varlist whatever {
    local `v'_label: var label `v'
}

collapse (mean) `whatever', by(whatever_else)

//    NOW REAPPLY THE ORIGINAL LABELS
foreach v of varlist whatever {
    label var `v' `"``v'_label'"'
}

Evidently if there is only one variable you are collapsing, as in your example, you don't need to set up loops to manage the storing and re-application of the original labels: just create the one local macro and then issue a single -label var- command.

[Sergiy Radyakin]

http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/da...with-collapse/
http://www.stata.com/statalist/archi.../msg00185.html