### 11.11 RENAME VARIABLES

         RENAME VARIABLES (old_names=new_names)... .

`RENAME VARIABLES` changes the names of variables in the active dataset. Specify lists of the old variable names and new variable names, separated by an equals sign (‘`=`’), within parentheses. There must be the same number of old and new variable names. Each old variable is renamed to the corresponding new variable name. Multiple parenthesized groups of variables may be specified.

`RENAME VARIABLES` takes effect immediately. It does not cause the data to be read.

`RENAME VARIABLES` may not be specified following `TEMPORARY` (see TEMPORARY).