[R] What is the maximum size of a matrix?

[Prof Brian Ripley]

Thanks Marc.  The information is in help("Memory-limits").

We are aware that at some point we will need to raise this limit and have 
discussed ways to do so.  But it is not going to be an issue for a while: 
working with 16Gb objects needs the sort of amount of memory that will not 
become common for anouther 5 years or so.

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, Marc Schwartz wrote:

> Harold,
>
> Actually there is a maximum size, even if one had sufficient memory.
>
> Since a matrix is a vector with a dim attribute, and these objects are
> indexed using integers, the maximum sized vector one 'could' create is:
>
>> .Machine$integer.max
> [1] 2147483647
>
> which is:
>
>> 2^31 - 1
> [1] 2147483647
>
> and that does not differ on 64 bit systems.
>
> HTH,
>
> Marc Schwartz
>
>
> On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 17:36 -0400, Doran, Harold wrote:
>> There is no maximum size. This will be driven by (at least) two issues.
>> First, how much memory you have on your own computer and second what
>> data you have in each cell. For instance, an integer takes less memory
>> than a floating point.
>>
>> Other spreadsheet programs like excel limit the number of rows to 16^2
>> irrespective of memory, but that is not true here.
>>
>> Harold
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Guanrao Chen
>>> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 5:06 PM
>>> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>> Subject: [R] What is the maximum size of a matrix?
>>>
>>> hi, Rers
>>>
>>> I tried to find out the max size (# of rows, # of
>>> columns) of a matrix that is allowed by R but failed.
>>>
>>> Can anybody let me know?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Guanrao
>>>
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
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