Firstly, the fundamental sequence of ideas of formation control is investigated with introductions on three classic formation control methods, i.e., the leader-follower method, the behavior based method, and the virtual structure method. In addition, the results of the recently developed graph-based method are reviewed, which embodies the above-mentioned three methods, including the modeling of multi-agent system by graphs, the algebra graph theory based and the rigid graph theory based formation control law designs and shape transformations between different formation patterns.Then, in the view of the graph theory, the recent developments of consensus, rendezvous/alignment, swarming/flocking and containment control are reviewed. Finally, towards to the practical applications, some topics which might be interesting for future investigation are raised as well.