help labunab
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title

     labunab -- Unabbreviate value label list


Syntax

        labunab lmacname : lblname-list [, clear all]


     where lblname-list is a list of abbreviated value labels.


Description

    labunab unabbreviates a list of existing value labels and returns the
    results in lmacname. The command is intended for use by programmers.

    Like in varlists the wildcards *, ? and ~ are allowed in lblname-list. It
    is not allowed to specify a range of value labels using the dash
    character (-). The keyword _all is allowed but is seldom used. It is best
    used with option all because otherwise lmacname merely conatains a list
    of all value labels in memory. This list is accessible referring to
    r(names) anyway. The reason is that labunab uses label dir internally.

    In a program that allows an abbreviated list of value label names you
    would code

        program foo
                version 9.2
                syntax anything
                labunab lbllist : `anything'
                code referring to `lbllist'
                ...
        end

        
Options

    clear clears lmacname before unabbreviating lblname-list. This option
        assures that lmacname will be empty if one of the labels in
        lblname-list is not found, even if the same lmacname has previously
        been used.

    all interprets value labels attached to variables as existing even if
        they are not currently in memory. The option is seldom used.


Examples

        . sysuse nlsw88

        . labunab lbllist : ra mar
        . label list `lbllist'

        . labunab short : ???lbl
        . display "`short'"

        . labunab list : some*
        (will return error message)

        . label values south southlbl
        (note that southlbl has never been defined)

        . labunab list : _all ,all
        . display "`list'"
        . display "`r(names)'"

        . labunab empty : occ
        . labunab empty : some*
        . display "`empty'"
        . labunab empty : some* ,clear
        . display "`empty'"


Acknowledgments

    The code storing results in lmacname is borrowed from official Stata's 
    unab.

                
Author

    Daniel Klein, University of Bamberg, klein.daniel.81@gmail.com


Also see

    Online: unab, label

    if installed: labutil2