How can I adjust the x-axis display range of my histogram

[Toluwani Oluwatola]

Good morning, all. I'm new to stata

I want to graphically represent a variable 25,840 observations, ranging -7.5 - 7.5. However, the histogram plot keeps starting from -10 to +10. I have consulted multiple online resources, and I've tried out the following code:

histogram zfacility_index, width(0.34) percent normal ytitle(Proportion of facilities) xtitle(Composite Index Score) xscale(range(-7.5 7.5)) title(Alt B composite score distribution)

Moreso, despite changing my y-axis option to percentage, I keep getting a scale value (0 to 4) instead of percentage values.

How can I change these? Thanks

[Nick Cox]

You need to spell out through xlabel()whatever labels you prefer if you don't like the default, say an extra option

xla(-7.5(2.5)7.5)

The option percent is doing exactly what you ask as you have about 40 bins, so on average bar height should be about 100/40 = 2.5, which fits what you show. But then the title Proportion of facilities is -- according to taste either inappropriate or just wrong -- as proportions are in the range 0 to 1. Where does the width of 0.34 come from? You can have whatever width you like but the percents shown will vary correspondingly.

A normal distribution doesn't seem a natural reference here. Your score is bounded and the limits are attained in the data, or nearly so, so a normal can't be anything but a poor fit. It distracts attention from the data, including some apparent bimodality.

I would add that quantile plots cut out all faff around choice of bin origin or bin width and what each bar shows precisely!