Working with dates in locals

[Henry Strawforrd]

I have a program that outputs a graph with a semester date on the x-axis and the starting point is flexible, depends on a global.

Now I want the x-axis labels to be adjusted automatically but I am finding it hard to work with dates in locals.

Suppose I have some

global start 2004h1

How can I use this to get something like

xlabel(1 "$start" 2 "${start}+1" ...)

but with proper date formatting?

[Andrew Musau]

No need to use globals here. The easiest way is to create a separate xvar and use the -format()- suboption:

gen xvar2= xvar + th(2004h1)
tw scatter yvar xvar2,  xlabel(`=th(2004h1)'/`=th(2004h1)+12', format(%th))

but as you want it

local start di %th `=th(2004h1)'
..., xlabel(1 "`:`start''" 2 "`:`start'+1'"...)