Question: Rename to lowercase for not just dataset in use

[Angelos Papanikolaou]

Hello,

I am merging various datasets.
The datasets generally have the same case in their variables, but I noticed that some of them have variable 'caseid' whereas others have 'CaseID' for example (or 'sex', 'Sex' etc).

I am now using these commands:

use dataset_1
rename *, lower
merge 1:1 caseid using dataset_2

The problem with this is that dataset_2 might have some uppercase.
The only different way I can think of is:

use dataset_1
rename *, lower
use dataset_2
rename *, lower
merge 1:1 caseid using dataset_1

Is there a way to include the rename variables for a dataset not in use?

Thank you.

[Clyde Schechter]

I don't think there is any way to apply -rename- to a data set that is not open. My thought is that prior to doing these merges it might make sense to go through all of the data sets and -rename *, lower-. After all, regardless of what you are going to do with these data sets, having that discrepancy in naming can't be helpful.

[Angelos Papanikolaou]

I don't think there is any way to apply -rename- to a data set that is not open. My thought is that prior to doing these merges it might make sense to go through all of the data sets and -rename *, lower-. After all, regardless of what you are going to do with these data sets, having that discrepancy in naming can't be helpful.

Understood. The database for a specific year did not adhere to the lowercase naming convention. Thank you!