Command to store list of variables with value labels

[Andrew Castro]

I was looking for a command (or package) which will store a list of variables with value labels so I can refer to them later in a loop. Thanks.

[Nick Cox]

help ds
search findname, all

[Carole J. Wilson]

Andrew, I'm not sure if you mean you want to store only those variables with value labels (Nick's suggestion in #2 addresses this), OR, you want to store a list of variables along with their value labels. If the latter, once you store the variable names in a macro (with ds , for example) you can then access the variable label with the extended macro function variable label. Each example shows a different way to input the list of variables, but all use the extended macro variable label to store the variable label.

*Identify and store a list of variables with ds

ds, has(varlabel)

foreach v of varlist `r(varlist)' {
     local vlab : variable label `v'
     di "The label for variable `v' is `vlab'"
    }


*OR provide a varlist in your loop

foreach v of varlist x1 x10-x15 {
     local vlab : variable label `v'
     di "The label for variable `v' is `vlab'"
    }


*OR create a macro containing a list of variable names

local vlist a b c d e f g h i j k

foreach v of `vlist' {
     local vlab : variable label `v'
     di "The label for variable `v' is `vlab'"
    }