Associate Variables with Labels; Add Labels to Dataset

[NKormanik]

Because of variable length limits, etc., I simply renamed all variables:

i_01

i_02

i_03

But each variable really should be associated with a longer, more descriptive name:

Abc.......

Def.......

Ghi.......

I've imported the dataset using the simple variable names.  But I'd like to somehow 'import' the longer respective names as 'labels'.  Can that be done?  If so, how?

Thanks,

Nicholas Kormanik

[Patrick]

I've imported the dataset using the simple variable names.

HOW did you import the data. In what format is the source? Please provide a bit more detail.

[sbxkoenk]

If you can make a dataset that has the short names in one column and the long names in a second column, then you can proceed as in the program below ... (the long names will serve as label).

data have;
 set sashelp.class;
run;

data short_and_long;
LENGTH varname $ 6 varlabel $ 20; 
varname='Name';   varlabel='xxxxx Name xxxxx';   output;
varname='Sex';    varlabel='xxxxx Sex xxxxx';    output;
varname='Age';    varlabel='xxxxx Age xxxxx';    output;
varname='Height'; varlabel='xxxxx Height xxxxx'; output;
varname='Weight'; varlabel='xxxxx Weight xxxxx'; output;
run;

filename shorlong temp;

data _NULL_;
 set short_and_long end=last;
 file shorlong; 
 if _N_=1 then do;
PUT 'proc datasets library=work NoList NoDetails memtype=data;';
PUT ' modify have;';
 end;
PUT "label " varname "='" varlabel +(-1) "';";
 if last then do;
PUT 'run; QUIT;';
 end;
run;

%INCLUDE shorlong / source2;
/* end of program */

Koen

[A_Kh]

Similar approach to the above, but using sql and macro:

/*Creating a macro variable "LABELS" that contains variable names and attributed labels*/
proc sql noprint;
	create table have as
		select distinct mnemonic, text 
			from sashelp.webmsg where length(text) eq 55;
	select catx('=', strip(mnemonic), quote(compress(text, '', 'ka'))) into:labels separated by ' ' from have; 
quit;

proc transpose data=have out=have_wide;
	var text;
	id mnemonic;
run; 

/*Applying labels to all variables using macro variable "LABELS"*/
data want;
	set have_wide;
	label &labels;
run; 

proc print data=want label; 
	label; 
run;