Rename variable after long label

[Guest]

Dear Stata community,

I imported Excel File into Stata. I added the option first row. It looks like the variable labels are too long. Here is my data example:

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input int period double(ExportsfromAustraliatoAustri C D E F)
1990 3.09566901071224  .57895066182819  .294643535250431 .0593818650269951   .224925261550764
1991  4.5952602023237 2.25751780793534  2.11941353857843 .0506122384234352  .0874920309334809
1992  5.2282254216153 3.62389907526694   3.2407176217882  .156218000188867   .226963453289869
1993 3.60528197241182 2.27059248575925  2.15936564523635 .0440518674912489  .0671749730316509
1994 4.20129878529848 2.61912210318222  2.48602899558369 .0897388701919393  .0433542374065943
1995 1.66267308728776 .718284669540413  .601226761357698 .0763861976604632  .0406717105222516
1996 1.67174006197263 .782547191550645  .713766766181845 .0226147164761684  .0461657088926319
1997 1.46324874669685 1.14965136733421  1.02237855424437 .0162570073507562   .111015805739078
1998 1.49118616589432 1.33347393623139  1.17672043293244  .126269767485836  .0304837358131181
1999 .797078970751392  .71046188236338  .620047433227721 .0772284463703214  .0131860027653374
2000 .685350935246251 .614281599995358  .548381828240676 .0590893523680979 .00681041938658401
2001 .790855012105365 .575420760492461  .517316716681913 .0434616679209898  .0146423758895586
2002 .678040814956461 .572556585585948  .481116637902978 .0533440622037423  .0380958854792272
2003 .962200827340452 .648574348691287  .387374677722107  .174542912918566  .0866567580506144
2004 .539462037877982  .46406333019581  .289660600577625 .0960438231260797   .078358906492105
2005 .829157935583996 .501237842646939 .0739293580848232  .198353245480259   .228955239081856
2006 .892993578681696 .297647331955208 .0716496026031399  .154609313711333  .0713884156407351
2007  1.1831879757206 .330713317689642 .0790955954086102  .188937995410851  .0626797268701809
2008 .722686752070487 .254740682283988 .0355505518170268 .0736625387465388   .145527591720423
2009 1.25267905943902 .785066710532028 .0507452481777911  .529209776576246   .205111685777991
end

I tried the command I found on the Internet:

foreach x of varlist ExportsfromAustraliatoAustri-ADJ{
    rename `x' `=strtoname("`:var lab `x''")'
}

I got an error: variable Exports_from_Australia_to_Austri already defined

It looks like Stata takes only part of the label. Actually what I really need are countries and category of a good from the label. E.g. in column C in the label I have: Exports from Australia to Austria - Category - 011 - Crops; gardening; horticult. What I would like to extract is AustraliaAustria011 as a variable name. Is there any way to take exactly this words from the label? The construction of the labels doesn't differ.so it is always in the same order

Please help me

[Scott Merryman]

Try:

* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input int period double(C)
1990 3.09566901071224  
end

label variable C "Exports from Australia to Austria - Category - 011 - Crops; gardening; horticult"

local C: variable label C

local word1: word 3 of `C'
local word2: word 5 of `C'
local word3: word 9 of `C'
local myname `word1'`word2'`word3'
rename C `=strtoname("`myname'")'
list, ab(20)

[Guest]

Thank you Scott for your answer. I modified your code to:

foreach x f varlist ExportsfromAustraliatoAustri-ADJ{
    local c:variable label `x'
    local word1: word 3 of `c'
    local word2: word 5 of `c'
    local word3: word 9 of `c'
    local myname `word1'`word2'`word3'
    rename `x' `=strtoname("`myname'")'
}

I don't know why I have an error: invalid syntax r(198)

I run your code and it changes the name. I typed when running my loop:

set trace on

It didn't help me though to figure out what I'm doing wrong

[Hemanshu Kumar]

foreach x of varlist ExportsfromAustraliatoAustri-ADJ{

[Guest]

Thank you Hemanshu! I didn't notice the typo