Module 5 Previewing our data set

In the previous modules, we manually entered our data with the help of the Data Editor in edit mode. Having finished entering our data, we can now check our work. To do this, we can use the Data Editor in browse mode. A main reason for using the Data Editor in browse mode is to preview data without changing it. By the end of this module, students:

  • should become familiar with some of the main functions and features of the Data Editor (browse)

  • be able to use the Data Editor in browse mode to preview data

  • Open the Data Editor (Browse) by going to the Stata toolbar and clicking on the icon with the spreadsheet and search tool pointing up. (see Figure 2.3 below)

Figure 2.3. Data Editor (browse) icon

  • In the Data Editor window that opens, we can see the numeric data where we did not add value labels - that is, for the id variable - but for all the variables to which we assigned value labels, we now see the value label of each respondent, as shown in figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4.

Previewing our data in Data Editor (Browse) mode can be quite helpful. For example, we can see that respondent 15 has an ID of 15, is male, may be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, is pursuing undergraduate studies which is self-funded yet he sees his studies as least affected by the new tuition hike and thinks the new hike is fair. By seeing it laid out this way, we are always aware of how each variable was coded.

However, if we would like to see just numeric values, we can use the Data Editor (Edit) to do this by typing into the Stata command window the following command: edit, nolabel*. The results can be seen below in Figure 2.5:

Figure 2.5.

Similarly, should we decide to preview numeric values using the Data Editor (Browse), we can type the browse, nolabel command. The result will be similar to Figure 2.6 below:

Figure 2.6