Generate variable based on variable labels

[Anne Todd]

Hi, I'm trying to generate a new variable and realized that one efficient way to do it might be using variable labels, because the variable names are not informative. However, I wasn't able to find any good answers or example code on this after a search--especially because I was not the one to create the variable labels, they were already included in the dataset given to me.

This is the general gist of what I am looking to do:

gen visible = 1 if ffb*_w3 [variable label contains the word "seen"]

[Andrew Musau]

You can use ds to identify such variables. The variables are stored in the macro `r(varlist)'. Below, say I want the row sum of variables that have "in" (inches) in their variable labels.

sysuse auto, clear
desc
ds, has(varlab *in*)
egen wanted = rowtotal(`r(varlist)')
l headroom length displacement wanted in 1/3

Res.:

 desc

Contains data from \ado\base/a/auto.dta
  obs:            74                          1978 Automobile Data
 vars:            12                          13 Apr 2018 17:45
                                              (_dta has notes)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              storage   display    value
variable name   type    format     label      variable label
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
make            str18   %-18s                 Make and Model
price           int     %8.0gc                Price
mpg             int     %8.0g                 Mileage (mpg)
rep78           int     %8.0g                 Repair Record 1978
headroom        float   %6.1f                 Headroom (in.)
trunk           int     %8.0g                 Trunk space (cu. ft.)
weight          int     %8.0gc                Weight (lbs.)
length          int     %8.0g                 Length (in.)
turn            int     %8.0g                 Turn Circle (ft.)
displacement    int     %8.0g                 Displacement (cu. in.)
gear_ratio      float   %6.2f                 Gear Ratio
foreign         byte    %8.0g      origin     Car type
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorted by: foreign

.
. ds, has(varlab *in*)
headroom      length        displacement

.
. egen wanted = rowtotal(`r(varlist)')

. l headroom length displacement wanted in 1/3

     +---------------------------------------+
     | headroom   length   displa~t   wanted |
     |---------------------------------------|
  1. |      2.5      186        121    309.5 |
  2. |      3.0      173        258      434 |
  3. |      3.0      168        121      292 |
     +---------------------------------------+

[Anne Todd]

Thanks Andrew Musau