Label variable over multiple lines

[Pradeep Guin]

I want to label multiple variables in my dataset in one command, like below:

lab var ///
id "ID" ///
y_school "years of schooling" ///
occ "occupation" ///
... ///
race "race"

Stata, however, produces an error message (invalid syntax r(198)

Any suggestions on correcting this is much appreciated.

[Nick Cox]

You can only define one variable label at a time. The syntax is given in the help:

label variable varname ["label"]

So you need

lab var id "ID" 
lab var y_school "years of schooling" 
label var occ "occupation" 
label var race "race"

What you want is programmable and daniel klein may have done it, but the syntax you want isn't legal for label.

[daniel klein]

What you want is programmable and daniel klein may have done it, but the syntax you want isn't legal for label.

I did. elabel (SSC) supports the syntax in #1. Just replace

lab var ...

with

elabel var ...

Best
Daniel

[Pradeep Guin]

Thank you Nick and Daniel. elabel works!!