How to Remove Variable Labels in SAS (With Examples)

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You can use the following methods to remove variable labels in SAS:

Method 1: Remove Label from One Variable

proc datasets lib=work;
  modify original_data;
  attrib my_variable label='';

Method 2: Remove Label from All Variables

proc datasets lib=work;
  modify original_data;
  attrib _all_ label='';

The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following dataset that has three variables with a label for each variable:

/*create dataset*/
data original_data;
   label x='REBOUNDS'
         y='POINTS'
         z='ASSISTS';
   input x y z;
datalines;
6 22 5
8 14 9
9 31 10
9 40 7
3 12 3
2 20 5
;

/*view contents of dataset*/
proc contents data=original_data;

Example 1: Remove Label from One Variable

The following code shows how to use proc datasets to remove the label from just the variable called ‘x’ in our dataset:

proc datasets lib=work;
  modify original_data;
  attrib x label='';

Notice that the label has been removed from variable x while the other variables in the dataset have remained unchanged.

Example 2: Remove Label from All Variables

The following code shows how to use proc datasets to remove the label from all variables in the dataset:

proc datasets lib=work;
  modify original_data;
  attrib _all_ label='';

Notice that the labels for all of the variables in the dataset have been removed.

Note: You can find the complete documentation for proc datasets here.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in SAS:

How to Normalize Data in SAS
How to Identify Outliers in SAS
How to Extract Numbers from String in SAS
How to Remove Leading Zeros in SAS