Use the VARNAMES statement in connection with the RAM, COSAN, or FACTOR model statement to allocate names to latent variables including error and disturbance terms. This statement is not needed if you are using the LINEQS statement.

In connection with the RAM model statement, the matrix-id must be specified by the integer number as it is used in the RAM list input (1 for matrix , 2 for matrix ). Because the first variables of matrix correspond to the manifest variables in the input data set, you can specify names only for the latent variables following the manifest variables in the rows of . For example, in the RAM notation of the alienation example, you can specify the latent variables by names F1, F2, F3 and the error variables by names E1, ..., E6, D1, D2, D3 with the following statement:

   vnames 1  F1-F3,
          2  E1-E6 D1-D3;

If the RAM model statement is not accompanied by a VNAMES statement, default variable names are assigned using the prefixes "F", "E", and "D" with numerical suffixes: latent variables are F1, F2, ..., and error variables are E1, E2, ....

The matrix-id must be specified by its name when used with the COSAN or FACTOR statement. The variable-names following the matrix name correspond to the columns of this matrix. The variable names corresponding to the rows of this matrix are set automatically by the following rules:

• If it is the first matrix of any term, the row variable names are the names of the manifest variables.

• If it is the central symmetric matrix of any term, the row variable names are the same as the column variable names of the same matrix.

• For any other matrices, the row variable names are the same as the column variable names of the preceding matrix.

You also can use the second kind of name assignment in connection with a COSAN statement. Two matrix names separated by an equal sign allocate the column names of one matrix to the column names of the other matrix. This assignment assumes that the column names of at least one of the two matrices are already allocated. For example, in the COSAN notation of the alienation example, you can specify the variable names by using the following statements to allocate names to the columns of , , and :

   vnames  J  V1-V6 F1-F3 ,
           A =J ,
           P  E1-E6 D1-D3 ;