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AHS 2001 SAS Value Labels Package

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AHS
The AHS 2001 page on HUD USER
(https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahs.html) now features a link to
download a zip archive containing a set of files that will add value labels
to most of the character variables in the SAS version of the AHS 2001
dataset.  Here is an excerpt from the ReadMe file that gives a longer
explanation:

===========================================================================

What Are Value Labels?
----------------------

Most of the variables in the American Housing Survey are coded to represent
different attributes of the housing unit to which they refer.  For example,
the TENURE variable represents an owned unit by '1,' a for-cash rental unit
by '2,' and a no-cash rental unit by '3."  A tabulation of housing units by
tenure would produce a table which showed these values (1,2,3).  However,
SAS allows users to define formats that assign labels to these values, such
as '1'='Owner,' '2'='Cash Renter," and '3'='No-Cash Renter."  Once the
TENURE variable is associated with this particular format, tabulations by
tenure will print the labels rather than the codes.  This makes the tables
easier to read.


What Does this Package Do?
--------------------------

Given that there are thousands of variables in the AHS dataset, defining
formats for each is a tedious job.  This package includes formats for most
character variables in the dataset, saving you the work.


Files in this Package
---------------------

AHS UP-CASER.SAS         A SAS program to make all the variable names in
                         the "flattened" version of the AHS dataset upper
                         case.

formatvnew.txt           A text file containing the format definitions.

formutil.sas             A SAS program which assigns formats to variables

Nativity Labels.sas      A SAS program which assigns a format to the NATVTY
                         variable (a special case--see below)

NewFormat.sas7bdat       A SAS dataset that tracks the formats to be
                         assigned to each variable

Procfmt.sas              A SAS program to turn the information in
                         formatvnew.txt into a SAS format catalog

ReadMe.TXT               This documentation file.

============================================================================

The full ReadMe file includes instructions on how to use the package.

Users of analytical programs other than SAS may want to download this
package just for the sake of the "formatvnew.txt" file, which lists all of
the variable formats in a structured way.  Since it's a text file, you
might be able to adapt the information for use with your own software.  If
you do, I'd like a copy of the results for our user-supplied programs
library.

Dav Vandenbroucke
Economist
U.S. Dept. HUD
david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
202-708-1060 ext. 5890