Browse and edit data in Stata

In order to browse or edit data cells in Stata, the browse and edit commands are the most commonly used. The difference between those two commands is that browse merely offers a read-only version of the data. To try it out using the nlsw88 dataset, just type:

sysuse nlsw88, clear
browse

This will open the data editor displaying an overview of the sample data, much like you would get opening a spreadsheet in Excel for instance. To just look at specific variables add them as parameters to the browse command, like so:

browse age grade

And just these variables are displayed. Now in order to edit some of the cells, close the data editor and type:

edit 

This again displays the data editor but with the option to actually edit data.