Rename variables numerically through loop

[Adam Madison]

Hello,

I am trying to rename all variables in my dataset to something informative, rather than r4, r5,....rn. The "r's" correspond to years, and they are in sequence. So I would like to have something like:

rename r4 yr_1926
rename r5 yr_1927
rename r6 yr_1928
.
.
.
rename r76 yr_2002

I tried to use a loop like the following (and different variations) and keep getting to the same problem. I can't figure out how to get it to exit the second loop and pick the next year.

foreach i of numlist 1926/2002{
foreach x of varlist *{
         local i = `i' 
         rename `x' var`i'
}
}

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input long id double(r4 r5 r6 r7 r8)
10006  67.743  71.245  70.139  70.139  70.139
10014  13.005  12.787   12.63  13.871  14.896
10022  13.567  13.996  14.326  14.552  14.025
10030  15.924  17.487  18.771  20.508  20.488
10049  11.984  12.848   13.34  59.145  61.094
10057   8.234   8.376   8.448   7.577   8.966
10065  16.609  15.727  13.849  18.062  -99.99
10073  14.789  14.912  14.571  15.321  14.926
10081   1.769    1.83   1.881   1.731   1.703
10102  14.474  16.604  19.184   21.49  27.895
10110  10.767  10.474  10.699   9.168   5.695
10129  37.706  -99.99  -99.99  -99.99  -99.99
10137  17.636  20.783  71.325  74.917  79.579
10145 161.283 172.804 181.573 192.716 207.096
10153  40.259  41.155  40.554  41.733  47.277
10161  29.267  29.237  29.332  39.581  45.541
10188  10.207   8.021   8.412   9.452  10.382
10196  -99.99  -99.99  -99.99  -99.99  -99.99
10209  15.462  16.486  14.561  16.589  17.205
10217  11.168  11.544  12.234  12.952  13.742
end

[Clyde Schechter]

No need for loops here.

rename r# yr_#, renumber(1926)

[Adam Madison]

Thank you! I didn't realize that the rename function had so much flexibility

[Clyde Schechter]

What I showed you in #2 barely scratches the surface of what -rename- can do. Read -help rename group-. You'll be amazed.

[Nick Cox]

For the record, note an extra problem: #1 showed a nested loop, but you want one loop over two lists in parallel. In principle, something like

local y = 1926
foreach v of var r* {
      rename `v' yr_`y'
      local ++y
}

would have been one of several other ways to do it.

Pedantry corner: rename is a command, not a function.