Thanks for the clarification, Marc. Also, I should correct my error below. I wrote excel's limit is 16^2. But, it is 2^16 -1


-----Original Message-----
From: Marc Schwartz [mailto:marc_schwartz@comcast.net]
Sent: Fri 6/1/2007 6:23 PM
To: Doran, Harold
Cc: Guanrao Chen; r-help@stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [R] What is the maximum size of a matrix?
 
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@stat.math.ethz.ch 
> > [mailto:r-help-bounces@stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Guanrao Chen
> > Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 5:06 PM
> > To: r-help@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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