[R] Memory allocation in problem R linux

[Andrew Perrin]

I've had similar problems under 1.2.2 for Linux; haven't had a chance to
play with them because the project isn't high priority for me. But the
symptom is similar:

- Start R, library(foreign)
- foo<-read.spss('spssfile.sav')
- foo<-as.data.frame(foo)
	--- it's here that R runs out of memory.

I can post more details if interested.

Andy Perrin

Dr Stuart Leask wrote:
> 
> Hi folks.
> 
> R 1.2.1 --vsize 34M, --nsize 3000k, Slackware Linux 2.2.16 in UMSDOS, P200,
> 64Mb ram, about 120Mb HD left in that partition (several hundred in another,
> if anyone thinks that could help). Runs like a breeze much of the time.
> 
> However, using Saikat DebRoy's read.spss from 'foreign' package to read in a
> 5Mb .SAV file (equivalent to 11Mb of tab-delimited data)
> data2<-read.spss('/home/data1.sav')
> returns the prompt in under ten seconds.
> 
> However, if I then try to take a subset of this, by eg.
> sub2.df<-as.data.frame(cbind(v1=data2$v1,v2=data2$v2))
> I get "Error: cannot allocate vector of size 441kb". No matter how large I
> make vsize or nsize. The data is in, but I can't use it!
> 
> I'd prefer to only import some of the SPSS file anyway (cf. using /KEEP in
> SPSS), but
> - I've tried importing a file with half as many variables, and I get the
> same problem - errors as above when I try and do anything with it
> - I am told that memory-handling under linux is better than windows!
> 
> R under linux must be able to handle datasets like this (about 70 variables,
> 18,000 cases).
> I must be doing something wrong, but fiddling with nsize & vsize doesn't
> seem to help. Help!
> 
> Stuart
> 
> *************************************************************
> Stuart Leask MA MRCPsych
> Clinical Lecturer in Psychiatry
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