Dropping value label for a variable

[Louise Henriksen]

Hi!

I have a dataset in stata in which I want to string a numeric variable called bopael.
When I try to string it with the command:

tostring (bopael), replace

I get the error:
bopael has value label ; no replace

It has a value label called prog

I have tried to drop the label value with:
label drop prog

Though the value label still appears, which leads to that i'm unable to string my variable.

Hope you can help!

[Nick Cox]

Do you really want decode?

Otherwise

gen wanted = strofreal(bopael)

maps e.g. 42 to "42" is that is what you want, but I doubt it.

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Louise:
what if you create a -string- alias of -bopael- and then drop -bopael-?:

tostring (bopael), g(new_bopael)
drop bopael

[Louise Henriksen]

I haven't tried to use the decode command, but should that work?

[Louise Henriksen]

Thank you, that works!

[daniel klein]

Getting back to the title:

label drop lblname

as is documented, will eliminate value label definitions from memory. To detach value labels from a variable, use

label values varname .

where the dot (.) may be omitted.

elabel (SSC) has a remove subcommand that combines these two steps.

Best
Daniel