
I've written a function that regularly throws the "cannot allocate vector of size X Kb" error, since it contains a loop that creates large numbers of big distance matrices. I'd be very grateful for any simple advice on how to reduce the memory demands of my function.  Besides increasing memory.size to the maximum available, I've tried reducing my "dist" objects to 3 sig.. fig.s (not sure if that made any difference), I've tried the distance function daisy() from package "cluster" instead of dist(), and I've avoided storing unnecessary intermediary objects as far as possible by nesting functions in the same command.  I've even tried writing each of my dist() objects to a text file, one line for each, and reading them in again one at a time as and when required, using scan() - and although this seemed to avoid the memory problem, it ran so slowly that it wasn't much use for someone with deadlines to meet...

I don't have formal training in programming, so if there's something handy I should read, do let me know.

Thanks,

Richard Gunton.

Postdoctoral researcher in arable weed ecology, INRA Dijon.


      
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