DATADICTIONARY: Stata module to enhanced, over-time-ready codebook generator for multi-wave data

Eric Booth

Statistical Software Components from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: A modern descsave. datadictionary builds an Excel codebook that puts each variable's statistics, % missing, distinct count, common values, labels, and notes side by side (one row per variable, or per variable-wave over time), including the srctag char written by combineall/projectbuilder. Results go to the screen, a machine-readable .dta, and a multi-sheet workbook, with clickable links to open them. For a study run in waves, files() / folder() stack a per-wave row per variable and add a "changed" column flagging any variable whose label or category set shifted since the previous wave (only detectable from the original wave files, since stitching destroys per-wave value labels). In-memory mode can also write a capture-guarded relabel do-file (dofile()) that re-applies labels, formats, notes, and chars after a CSV/Excel round-trip through another package, with a re-ingestion receipt, plus an optional infile dictionary (dictionary()).

Language: Stata
Requires: Stata version 16.0
Keywords: codebook; data documentation; data management; Excel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07-30
Note: This module should be installed from within Stata by typing "ssc install datadictionary". The module is made available under terms of the MIT license (https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).
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Downloads: (external link)
http://fmwww.bc.edu/repec/bocode/d/datadictionary.ado program code (text/plain)
http://fmwww.bc.edu/repec/bocode/d/datadictionary.sthlp help file (text/plain)

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