I would like to retain the variable labels after reshaping the dataset from long to wide. I have a problem in inputting the dataset (I keyed them in Excel then imported).
clear
set obs 7
input id a1 a2 a3
"s001" "John" 23 "Primary"
"s002" "Mary" 32 "Secondary"
"s002" "Anna" 23 "Tertiary"
"s003" "Joseph" 34 "Secondary"
"s003" "Oganyo" 23 "Primary"
"s004" "Manyoya" 34 "Tertiary"
"s005" "Makbuti" 45 "Primary"
end
*======= Label the variables
label var a1 "partners name"
label var a2 "partners age"
label var a3 "partners education"
foreach variable of varlist a*{
local varlabel : variable label `variable'
di "`varlabel'"
bys id: gen index = _n
renvars a* , postfix(_)
reshape wide a*, i(id) j(index)
label var `variable'* "`varlabel'"
}
The code here is very confused and just won't work well without major surgery.
At the outset your input statement fails to declare string variables when needed.
The set obs 7 is compatible with an end to the input.
A big problem is that you are looping over a bunch of commands including reshape, but there is just one reshape to carry out.
Your code for saving variable labels needs to save then separately.
renvars is from the Stata Journal (2005), and doesn't seem needed here any way. As from Stata 12 (2011!) it should still work but is essentially superseded by extensions to rename.
Here's my best guess at the example you should have given and the code you need.
clear
input str4 id str7 a1 a2 str9 a3
"s001" "John" 23 "Primary"
"s002" "Mary" 32 "Secondary"
"s002" "Anna" 23 "Tertiary"
"s003" "Joseph" 34 "Secondary"
"s003" "Oganyo" 23 "Primary"
"s004" "Manyoya" 34 "Tertiary"
"s005" "Makbuti" 45 "Primary"
end
label var a1 "partner's name"
label var a2 "partner's age"
label var a3 "partner's education"
local j = 0
foreach variable of varlist a* {
local ++j
local varlabel`j' : variable label `variable'
di "`varlabel`j''"
}
bys id: gen index = _n
reshape wide a*, i(id) j(index)
forval j = 1/3 {
foreach v of var a`j'* {
label var `v' "`varlabel`j''"
}
}
list
describe
Here's the output of the last two commands.
. list
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| id a11 a21 a31 a12 a22 a32 |
|------------------------------------------------------------|
1. | s001 John 23 Primary . |
2. | s002 Mary 32 Secondary Anna 23 Tertiary |
3. | s003 Joseph 34 Secondary Oganyo 23 Primary |
4. | s004 Manyoya 34 Tertiary . |
5. | s005 Makbuti 45 Primary . |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
.
. describe
Contains data
Observations: 5
Variables: 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variable Storage Display Value
name type format label Variable label
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
id str4 %9s
a11 str7 %9s partner's name
a21 float %9.0g partner's age
a31 str9 %9s partner's education
a12 str7 %9s partner's name
a22 float %9.0g partner's age
a32 str9 %9s partner's education
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorted by: id
Note: reshape wide makes most things more difficult in Stata.
Note: Please use dataex to create reproducible data examples in Stata.