Describe

When you want to have a quick overlook of your variables, describe can be very useful. It is basically like a summary of what you can see when using the variables manager (see Manage variables).

describe

If you just want to describe specific variables or portions of the variable list, this can be specified after describe:

describe varname

or

describe varname varname varname

or

describe varname-varname

For example:

describe sex income

More information help describe

Codebook

As a complement to describe, you can use codebook.

Note We suggest that you include the compact option, or you will get a lot of output.

codebook, compact

You may also try out the following option to see any potentially missing information in the dataset (e.g. missing labels or value labels).

codebook, problems

Finally, if you want to explore a specific variable in a detailed way, use this option:

codebook srh, detail

More information help codebook

List

As an alternative to browse (see Coding the questionnaires), you can use list. However, it works best for datasets with a limited number of variables and observations, or if you only list a portion of your dataset – otherwise, the output will be extremely difficult to read.

list

If you just want to describe specific variables or portions of the variable list, this can be specified after list:

list varname

or

list varname varname varname

or

list varname-varname

For example:

list sex income

You can also choose to only list a range of observations. Note that the output depends on how the observations are sorted.

list in x/x

For example:

list in 1/5

Note You can also use list together with if (see Condition the data with if).