[R] Maximum number of tables combined with rbind

[David Winsemius]

On Jun 20, 2009, at 1:02 AM, gug wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
> I have been using read.table to read data files into R, then rbind to
> combine them into one table.  The column headings are all identical,  
> so it
> should be straightforward, and it seems to be working well so far.
>
> My question is: What is the maximum number of tables that can be  
> combined
> with rbind?
>
> Is it driven by the number of rows in the tables, by a constraint  
> with the
> syntax of rbind itself, by my PC's memory,

Yes, and the OS. "PC" is not a useful designation for an OS.

> or by some other constraint?  At
> this point the data files I am reading in are approx 2,500 rows x 150
> columns.

That should not be any problem. On an Intel-Mac w/ 8 GB there is no  
problem with dataframes that are 500 times that size.

If this is on a Windows box, there is an RW-FAQ on the topic.
>

David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT