Dear Raynald,

Thank you very much for your suggestion.

The code works indeed but I am left with 2 practical problems:

1) Some of the labels contain ' symbols (the text is in Italian), which causes the procedure to read the label only up to the first ' symbol

2) The lenght of the label is not a constant (it contains the text of a question), a matter that for the time being I have solved by imposing the vname string leght equal to 255 char, but that I would like to solve in a neater manner....

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Regards, Luca

> -----Messaggio originale----- > Da: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] Per > conto di Raynald Levesque > Inviato: marted́ 28 gennaio 2003 3.02 > A: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Oggetto: Re: A way to import variable labels > > > Hi > > Of course there is a way... > > * Create a sample text file with variables names in first line. > > DATA LIST FIXED /linestr 1-50(A). > BEGIN DATA > "var label 1" "var label 2" "var label 3" > 1 1 1 > 2 2 2 > 3 4 5 > 7 2 4 > END DATA. > LIST. > WRITE OUTFILE='c:\temp\test.txt'/linestr. > EXECUTE. > > * Get the variable labels. > GET DATA /TYPE = TXT > /FILE = 'C:\Temp\test.txt' > /DELCASE = LINE > /DELIMITERS = "\t " > /QUALIFIER = '"' > /ARRANGEMENT = DELIMITED > /FIRSTCASE = 1 > /IMPORTCASE = FIRST 1 > /VARIABLES = > V1 A11 > V2 A11 > V3 A11. > CACHE. > EXECUTE. > > > * Create syntax to define variable label. > STRING vname(A8). > DO REPEAT var=ALL. > DO IF var<>vname. /* we do not need a label for vname */ > - COMPUTE #vn=#vn+1. > - COMPUTE vname=CONCAT('v',LTRIM(STRING(#vn,F4))). > - WRITE OUTFILE 'c:\temp\define var labels.sps' > /"Variable Label "vname" '"var"'.". > END IF. > END REPEAT PRINT. > EXECUTE. > > > * get data. > GET DATA /TYPE = TXT > /FILE = 'C:\Temp\test.txt' > /DELCASE = LINE > /DELIMITERS = "\t " > /QUALIFIER = '"' > /ARRANGEMENT = DELIMITED > /FIRSTCASE = 2 > /IMPORTCASE = ALL > /VARIABLES = > V1 A11 > V2 A11 > V3 A11. > CACHE. > EXECUTE. > > * Define variable labels. > INCLUDE "c:\temp\define var labels.sps". > > Regards > > Raynald Levesque rlevesque@videotron.ca > Visit my SPSS Pages http://pages.infinit.net/rlevesqu/index.htm > > > -----Original Message----- > From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On > Behalf Of Luca Meyer > Sent: January 27, 2003 10:18 AM > To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Subject: A way to import variable labels > > > Hello, > > I have txt file with variable labels as first line of the > file. Is there a way to import them without having to retype > one-by-one using the VAR LABEL command? > > Thanks, > Luca > > Mr. Luca MEYER > Consumer research advisor > http://lucameyer.com/ > >