topic Why does my variable keep the old label after a rename? in SAS Programming

Why does my variable keep the old label after a rename?

BarryP — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:21:50 GMT

Hi,

I ran into a problem that took a long time to debug. I renamed a variable so that it would contain spaces when displayed in SASVA. I know that there are other ways to do this, but I needed to keep the variable names consistent with data that was previously uploaded in Excel.

This does not seem to happen all the time (though I could be wrong). I would just like to understand when I can expect this to happen and why.

Data New_Table;

Set Old_Table;

Rename Variable_Name = 'Variable Name'n;

Run;

Results: Appears as Variable Name in my output, but when I hover over the column header, it shows that I have a label that is Variable_Name.

When this goes to SASVA, it appears as Variable_Name but when I hover over (or maybe right click) it lists the source variable as Variable Name.

FWIW, I fixed it by creating a new variable, making it = to the old variable, and then dropping the old variable.

Thanks!

Re: Why does my variable keep the old label after a rename?

VDD — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:37:38 GMT

if you do not create a label for a variable SAS deflates to naming the labels with the variable name.

when you rename a variable only the variable name is changed and the old label is inherited.

to get what you are expecting use a label statement to label that variable to what you want it to display.

Re: Why does my variable keep the old label after a rename?

Tom — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 22:05:49 GMT

Why would SAS change the label if all you did was change the name?

You could set the new label.

data New_Table;
  set Old_Table;
  rename Variable_Name = 'Variable Name'n;
  label Variable_Name = 'Variable Name';
run;

Or perhaps just remove the old one.

data New_Table;
  set Old_Table;
  rename Variable_Name = 'Variable Name'n;
  label Variable_Name = ' ';
run;