Labelling variable based on existing label of another variable

[Jessica Aw]

Hello,

I was wondering if there is a command that enables you to label a variable based on an existing variable label
e.g.
I have a variable X and I use the command:

label variable x "apples"

Now I want to run a loop generating variables from x, but I want to include in that loop to label them as "apples" or whatever the existing label for variable x is.

TIA!

Cheers,
Jess

[Andrew Musau]

sysuse auto
forval i=2/4{
    gen foreign`i'= foreign
    lab var foreign`i' "`: var lab foreign'"
}
desc foreign*

Res.:

. desc foreign*

              storage   display    value
variable name   type    format     label      variable label
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
foreign         byte    %8.0g      origin     Car type
foreign2        float   %9.0g                 Car type
foreign3        float   %9.0g                 Car type
foreign4        float   %9.0g                 Car type

[Nick Cox]

You can do this but how best to do it depends on how you want to generate the variables. For example, with separate a variable label is created automatically. The same is true of tabulate, generate().

So, more explanation of what you intend seems needed for a better answer than this.