How can I change the format of data for my axes?

To change the format of a number (or date) on an axis of a graph, you must first change the format of the variable itself.

For example:

 .  set obs 10

obs was 0, now it is 10

 . gen x = uniform()

 . gen y = uniform()

(These commands will generate 10 random values for variables x and y. The values generated will be between 0 and 1.)

 . list

              x          y 
   1.  .1369841   .2551499  
   2.  .6432207   .0445188  
   3.  .5578017   .4241557  
   4.  .6047949   .8983462  
   5.   .684176   .5219247  
   6.  .1086679   .8414094  
   7.  .6184582   .2110077  
   8.  .0610638   .5644092  
   9.  .5552388   .2648021  
  10.  .8714491   .9477426  

 . describe

 Contains data
   obs:            10                          
  vars:             2                          
  size:           120 (99.9% of memory free)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
               storage  display     value
 variable name   type   format      label      variable label
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 x               float  %9.0g                  
 y               float  %9.0g                  
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Sorted by:  
      Note:  dataset has changed since last saved

 . graph y x
 
 . format x y %6.2f

 . list

           x       y 
   1.   0.14    0.26  
   2.   0.64    0.04  
   3.   0.56    0.42  
   4.   0.60    0.90  
   5.   0.68    0.52  
   6.   0.11    0.84  
   7.   0.62    0.21  
   8.   0.06    0.56  
   9.   0.56    0.26  
  10.   0.87    0.95  

 . describe

 Contains data
   obs:            10                          
  vars:             2                          
  size:           120 (99.9% of memory free)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
               storage  display     value
 variable name   type   format      label      variable label
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 x               float  %6.2f                  
 y               float  %6.2f                  
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Sorted by:  
      Note:  dataset has changed since last saved

 . graph y x

Note: The changes in the display format are now reflected on the graph axes.