[R] Evaluating R. I need to open "a dataset".

[Diego Moretti]

Hello,
Our  Statistics Group is evaluating the use of R for the elaboration of 
some index.
We have some datasets sas and we would like to evaluate performance in 
the elaborations of mean, percentile, Gini index of a population and of 
a survey sample.
I need to open "a dataset". Currently I've understood that I've to 
follow a code sequence like this:

alfa <- {a moltiplicator}
memory.limit(alfa*round(memory.limit()/1048576.0, 2))
library(foreign)
hereis <- read.xport("C:/R/ { my exported file sas }")

The dimension of { my exported file sas } is 120 mega
Is correct to allocate all the file in memory in a variable ( hereis ) ?
With an alfa ( the moltiplicator ) of  2 , I have the following error:

Error: cannot allocate vector of size 214 Kb
In addition: Warning message:
Reached total allocation of 446Mb: see help(memory.size)

Thank you for any advice.

Diego Moretti

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Diego Moretti                           (dimorett at istat.it)
Italian National Statistical Institute  (ISTAT)