tsset manages the time-series settings of a dataset. tsset timevar declares the data in memory to be a time series. This allows you to use Stata's time-series operators and to analyze your data with the ts commands. tsset panelvar timevar declares the data to be panel data, also known as cross-sectional time-series data, which contain one time series for each value of panelvar. This allows you to also analyze your data with the xt commands without having to xtset your data.
tsset without arguments displays how the data are currently set and sorts the data on timevar or panelvar timevar.
tsset, clear is a rarely used programmer's command to declare that the data are no longer a time series.