[R] Largest allowable matrix

[Uwe Ligges]

Barry Baker wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am a new R user and have two datasets that I would like to analyze.  The
> first is (2409222 x 17) and the other is (21682998 x 17). Is this possible
> in R?  If not then what is the maximum number of rows and columns or number
> of elements that R can handle?


The number of columns and rows is not a problem here, but you will need
21682998 * 17 * 4 bytes to store the latter matrix (assuming floats) in 
memory, that is 1406.139 Mb.
In order to do something sensible with the data, you need *at least* 
twice the amount of RAM, hence at least 3Gb.

Uwe Ligges


> Thanks in advance,
> Barry
> _________________________
> Barry Baker, Ph.D.
> Global Climate Change Initiative
> The Nature Conservancy
> 2424 Spruce St., Suite 100
> Boulder, CO 80302
> 
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> 
> http://nature.org/tncscience/scientists/misc/baker.html
> 
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