[R] A question on memory size

[Rense Nieuwenhuis]

Hi Nancy,

in contrast with some other statistical packages (such as SPSS) R  
puts all the data in active memory. In theory this should make R  
faster than SPSS, because SPSS reads the data-file of the harddisk  
when analysing it (this counts for large files). Disadvantage of this  
behavior is, that file-sizes are limited in R.

Most operating systems can 'add' virtual memory to your computer  
using the harddrive (this is called the swap-file), in which data is  
stored that isn't used immediately.

CAn you tell us more about your computer, for making it possible to  
give a more detailed sollution to your problem? For instance, what  
operating system do you use, what kind/size of datafile and what  
analysis are you trying to run?

Rense

On May 15, 2006, at 19:50 , Nancy Lo wrote:

> Hi,
> I am using a note book computer to do simulation. Even I added a  
> commend
> line in the shortcut on my desktop for R. I still get a message saying
> reached total memory allocation of 502 Mb. Any suggestions will be  
> welcome.
> Nancy
>
> -- 
> Nancy C.H. Lo, Ph.D
> Southwest Fisheries Science Center
> 8604 La Jolla Shores Dr.
> La Jolla, CA 92037
> 858-546-7123(o)
> 858-546-5656(x)
>
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