> In a time series context, how may I insert variable labels (from a .txt
> file) into a dataset via a script or console? I know that using the GUI I
> can choose "Data -> Variable labels" and then select the .txt file with the

> descriptions.

A couple of recent tweaks in CVS (to the sscanf function and the setinfo
command) make this a bit easier than before. Example follows, where we
assume that labels.txt contains one variable label per line, for each

of the substantive variables in the dataset.

<script>
nulldata 10

series x1 = normal()
series x2 = normal()
series x3 = normal()
series x4 = normal()

string labeltext = readfile("labels.txt")

string vname, label

loop i=2..5 -q
  sscanf(labeltext, "%63[^\n]", label)
  setinfo i -d "@label"
  labeltext = labeltext + strlen(label) + 1
endloop
</script>

(BTW, apologies for not replying "properly"; my university email account

is screwed up at the moment so I'm resorting to gmail.)