Changing a set of variables in a dataset

[Nick Baradar]

Hello Everyone,

I have several datasets coming from different studies. My goal is two merge all those datasets into one single dataset.
Some variables in different datasets have the same variable name, so in order to merge the datasets, I need to change the variable names.
I want to change the variable names based on the study they originate. For example, for all variables in the first dataset, I want them to start with 1_variable_name. And the variables from the second dataset, I want them to begin with 2_variable_name. Since I have a lot of variables in the dataset, I was wondering if it is possible to change the variable names with a simple command rather than changing their names one by one. I would highly appreciate your advice on this.

[Hemanshu Kumar]

Nick, variable names in Stata cannot begin with a number. But a simple command that would change all the variable names in a dataset might be:

rename * d1_*

Just keep in mind that if you are using merge to combine these datasets, you will probably need a key variable that is named the same across the various datasets. You can then rename just that one back to its original name by doing something like

rename d1_keyvar keyvar

[Nick Cox]

On the whole this sounds like a problem for append, not merge.

But what you ask is possible: see

help rename groups

[Nick Baradar]

Nick, variable names in Stata cannot begin with a number. But a simple command that would change all the variable names in a dataset might be:

rename * d1_*

Just keep in mind that if you are using merge to combine these datasets, you will probably need a key variable that is named the same across the various datasets. You can then rename just that one back to its original name by doing something like

rename d1_keyvar keyvar

Dear Hemanshu,

Thank you very much for the advice and the clarification!

[Nick Baradar]

On the whole this sounds like a problem for append, not merge.

But what you ask is possible: see

help rename groups

I will dig more into append command. Thank you for your advice!