uselabel: how to also export values without a label

[Yingyi Lin]

Hi Statalist,

I was trying to output a file which showcase all values (regardless of whether that value has a label) of a variable.

Here are the codes I used:

use data, clear
uselabel, clear
save label, replace

however, this output only shows the values that have labels. There are some numeric variables in my data, for example: variable urban, it could have the following values
values label
1 urban
2 rural
99 (NO LABEL)


I wonder how could I also output the value "99"? Any suggestions are much appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

[Andrew Musau]

I do not use uselabel and you are asked to state the provenance of community-contributed commands.

I was trying to output a file which showcase all values (regardless of whether that value has a label) of a variable.

Output or export to where? Using decode and contract is enough to get these values in a dataset, which you can export in whichever format you like. See

help decode

and

help contract

Alternatively, if you always have short labels, a simple program such as the following can create a matrix with the information that you request.

cap prog drop labvals
program labvals, rclass
    version 13.0
    syntax namelist
    tempname val lab labval
    qui preserve
    qui gen `val'= `namelist'
    qui decode(`namelist'), g(`lab')
    qui contract `val' `lab'
    qui replace `lab'= cond(!missing(`lab'), `=strtoname("`lab'")', "_")
    qui mkmat `val', mat(`labval') rownames(`lab')
    mat colname `labval'= "Values"
    return matrix labval = `labval'
    qui restore
end

*EXAMPLE
sysuse auto, clear
replace foreign= 99 in 1/7
labvals foreign
return list
mat list r(labval)

Res.:

. mat list r(labval)

r(labval)[3,1]
          Values
Domestic       0
 Foreign       1
       _      99

[Yingyi Lin]

Hi Andrew, the last code solution that you provided is exactly what I am looking for! I came up with the following solution which saves the output to a new .dta dataset

sysuse auto, clear
replace foreign= 99 in 1/7
contract foreign
decode foreign, gen(label)
gen value=foreign

This works perfectly! But then I have a question of how to save the output of "mat list r(labval)" into such a .dta dataset" -- Just curious! Thank you again Andrew! (the contract command is a perfect solution!)

[Yingyi Lin]

Hi again Andrew,

I realized that the solution could only output the label values for one numeric variable. The reason why I used "uselabel" at the first place is that it output all numeric vars in a long format.

For the "mat list r(labval)" solution you provided, I tried to add multiple varnames but it did not work. I wonder what direction I should go for adding more than one variable? Thank you!

[Andrew Musau]

If you want to hold the result in a dataset, there is no need for matrices. It is unclear whether you need the values for only variables with labels or for all numeric variables in the dataset. I assume the latter, but getting the former only requires a minor modification.

*ASSIGN NAME TO TEMPORARY HOLDING FILE
tempfile holding
*OPEN DATASET HERE
sysuse auto, clear
*IDENTIFY NUMERIC VARS AND LOOP
qui ds, has(type numeric)
foreach var in `r(varlist)'{
    preserve
    cap decode `var', g(label)
    cap gen label= ""
    gen value= `var', before(label)
    contract value label
    gen varname= "`var'", before(value)
    drop _freq
    cap append using `holding'
    qui save `holding', replace
    restore
}
use `holding', clear

Res.:

. l, sepby(varname)

     +---------------------------------+
     |      varname   value      label |
     |---------------------------------|
  1. |      foreign       0   Domestic |
  2. |      foreign       1    Foreign |
     |---------------------------------|
  3. |   gear_ratio    2.19            |
  4. |   gear_ratio    2.24            |
  5. |   gear_ratio    2.26            |
  6. |   gear_ratio    2.28            |
  7. |   gear_ratio    2.41            |
  8. |   gear_ratio    2.43            |
  9. |   gear_ratio    2.47            |
 10. |   gear_ratio    2.53            |
 11. |   gear_ratio    2.56            |
 12. |   gear_ratio    2.73            |
 13. |   gear_ratio    2.75            |
 14. |   gear_ratio    2.87            |
 15. |   gear_ratio    2.93            |
 16. |   gear_ratio    2.94            |
 17. |   gear_ratio    2.97            |
 18. |   gear_ratio    2.98            |
 19. |   gear_ratio    3.05            |
 20. |   gear_ratio    3.06            |
 21. |   gear_ratio    3.08            |
 22. |   gear_ratio    3.15            |
 23. |   gear_ratio     3.2            |
 24. |   gear_ratio    3.21            |
 25. |   gear_ratio    3.23            |
 26. |   gear_ratio     3.3            |
 27. |   gear_ratio    3.37            |
 28. |   gear_ratio    3.54            |
 29. |   gear_ratio    3.55            |
 30. |   gear_ratio    3.58            |
 31. |   gear_ratio    3.64            |
 32. |   gear_ratio     3.7            |
 33. |   gear_ratio    3.72            |
 34. |   gear_ratio    3.73            |
 35. |   gear_ratio    3.74            |
 36. |   gear_ratio    3.78            |
 37. |   gear_ratio    3.81            |
 38. |   gear_ratio    3.89            |
     |---------------------------------|
 39. | displacement      79            |
 40. | displacement      85            |
 41. | displacement      86            |
 42. | displacement      89            |
 43. | displacement      90            |
 44. | displacement      91            |
 45. | displacement      97            |
 46. | displacement      98            |
 47. | displacement     105            |
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 69. | displacement     425            |
     |---------------------------------|
 70. |         turn      31            |
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     |---------------------------------|
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     |---------------------------------|
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     |---------------------------------|
199. |        trunk       5            |
200. |        trunk       6            |
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215. |        trunk      22            |
216. |        trunk      23            |
     |---------------------------------|
217. |     headroom     1.5            |
218. |     headroom       2            |
219. |     headroom     2.5            |
220. |     headroom       3            |
221. |     headroom     3.5            |
222. |     headroom       4            |
223. |     headroom     4.5            |
224. |     headroom       5            |
     |---------------------------------|
225. |        rep78       1            |
226. |        rep78       2            |
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230. |        rep78       .            |
     |---------------------------------|
231. |          mpg      12            |
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     |---------------------------------|
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     +---------------------------------+

.

[Yingyi Lin]

This works perfectly! Thank you Andrew! (I was assuming wanting all numeric values, even some are not attached to any labels)