Stata can be used interactively and in batch mode.
You can run commands interactively or type commands into a file and run them all at once.

Stata can create log files.
Log files record what you type and how Stata responds.
Log files may be recorded of interactive or batch sessions.

Log files of interactive sessions can be re-run as batch files.
This makes it easy to duplicate analyses and to document fully your data-management steps.

Log files even contain a record of changes done interactively in the spreadsheet editor!