Label variables ascending order

[Silvia Cannas]

Hi,

I am using Stata 17.

I have 61 variables in my dataset (q1-q61). I would like to label them as follows:

q1 - item01
q2 - item02
.
.
.
q61 - item61

How would you suggest doing this? Of course, I could repeat the same "label variable" command 61 times, but if there is a quicker way, I would prefer to learn it.

Thanks in advance for all of your help.

[Chen Samulsion]

Use a simple loop:

foreach n of numlist 1/61 {
 if `n'<10 {
   label variable q`n' item0`n'
 }
 else {
   label variable q`n' item`n'
 }
}

[daniel klein]

forvalues i = 1/61 {
    local number : display %02.0f `i'
    label variable q`i' "item`number'"
}

I find these labels pretty meaningless; they add no information over what is already present in the variable names.

[Nick Cox]

I agree with daniel klein For more discussion of his method for looping see https://www.stata-journal.com/articl...article=pr0051

[Silvia Cannas]

Thank you very much! Your comments were very helpful!