How can I show % values on the y axis of a plot?

Question

In any Mathematica chart or plot how can I show % values on the y axis?

I may have data like this:

data = {{{2010, 8, 3}, 0.}, {{2010, 8, 31}, -0.052208}, {{2010, 9, 30}, 
  0.008221}, {{2010, 10, 29}, 0.133203}, {{2010, 11, 30}, 
  0.044557}, {{2010, 12, 31}, 0.164891}, {{2011, 1, 31}, 
  0.055141}, {{2011, 2, 28}, 0.114801}, {{2011, 3, 31}, 
  0.170501}, {{2011, 4, 29}, 0.347566}, {{2011, 5, 31}, 
  0.461358}, {{2011, 6, 30}, 0.244649}, {{2011, 7, 29}, 
  0.41939}, {{2011, 8, 31}, 0.589874}, {{2011, 9, 30}, 
  0.444151}, {{2011, 10, 31}, 0.549095}, {{2011, 11, 30}, 0.539669}};

DateListPlot@data

I just want the y axis to range from 0% to 60% instead of 0.0 to 0.6.

Answer 1

Use FrameTicks -> {{left, right},{bottom, up}}

DateListPlot[data, 
             FrameTicks -> {{{{0.0, "0%"}, {0.1, "10%"}, {0.2, "20%"}, 
                              {0.3, "30%"}, {0.4, "40%"}, {0.5, "50%"}, 
                              {0.6, "60%"}}, None}, 
                            {Automatic, None}}]

The table for FrameTicks can be generated, e.g.,

Table[{k/10., ToString@(10 k) <> "%"}, {k, 6}]
(* Out[10] := {{0.1, "10%"}, {0.2, "20%"}, {0.3, "30%"}, {0.4, "40%"}, {0.5, "50%"}, {0.6, "60%"}} *)

If you need to make a lot of figures there is LevelScheme, a free package that makes producing good plots in Mathematica much easier, especially when it comes to tick marks.

EDIT: As per Jagra's suggestion here is a function that makes a tick specification list based on the data set and with desired tick steps. Assumptions are that the data structure is the always the same.

ticks[step_, data_] := {{Table[{k, ToString@IntegerPart@(100 k) <> "%"}, 
                               {k, 
                                Floor[Min@data[[All, 2]], step],
                                Ceiling[Max@data[[All, 2]], step], 
                                step}], None}, 
                         {Automatic, None}}; 

Now you can define a plotting function

plot = DateListPlot[#, FrameTicks -> ticks[.1, #]] &

and use it like this plot@data

Finally, since your question specifies any Mathematica plot, remember that FrameTicks works only on framed plots, for other plots use Ticks -> {{x ticks},{y ticks}}.