[Dirk Enzmann]

And if you want to save your data and don't need the temporary variables after clonevar any more, also drop the temporary variables after clonevar or before saving your data.

[Chen Samulsion]

Some relevant threads:

Temporary names for a scalar: Dangerous advice

Re: st: tempvar versus tempname

Where to Specify Temporary Names for Local Macros Inside Ado Files

how to use tempvar more efficiently?

[daniel klein]

Here's one way to have summarize show a specified variable name. Not efficient, not elegant, but a sufficient proof of concept:

program summarize_as
    
    version 18
    
    syntax varname , as(name)
    
    preserve
    
    capture drop `as'
    
    rename `varlist' `as'
    
    summarize `as'
    
end

Here's how you use it in a program with temporary names:

program foo
    
    version 18
    
    syntax varlist
    
    tempvar price
    
    generate `price' = 42
    
    summarize_as `price' , as(price)
    
end

Here's an example:

. sysuse auto
(1978 automobile data)

. foo price

    Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
       price |         74          42           0         42         42

. summarize price

    Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
       price |         74    6165.257    2949.496       3291      15906

[daniel klein]

Here's a slightly more efficient summarize_as. You could do (much) better but probably not wihthout (much) more programming:

program summarize_as
    
    version 18
    
    syntax varname , as(name)
    
    tempname tmpframe
    
    frame put `varlist' , into(`tmpframe')
    
    frame `tmpframe' {
        
        rename `varlist' `as'
        
        summarize `as'
        
    }
    
end