[R] contextstack overflow

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, Gisela Sturm wrote:

>> I am an absolute beginner in R programming? I have a really long R-code
> with
>> many variables. When I run the program I always get an error at the same
>> place called "contextstack overflow". Does anybody know what to do in this
>> case? Are there so strict limitations in R? If yes, is it possible to
> handle
>> it? How?
>
> There are limits, and they are quite high -- it is far more likely that
> you have an error in your R code.
>
> In this particular case, it is saying that you have more than 50 nested
> parse contexts -- that is nested if, [, [[, {, ( calls.
>
> I find it helpful to use a syntax-aware editor (e.g. ESS) as that will
> highlight these things for you via indentation patterns.
>
> --
> 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)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>
>
> Thank you very much!
> I think I have more than 50 nested parse contexts. :-/
> Is there a possibility to change (increase) this limit?

Yes, by recompiling R, but you need to write your code in a more modular 
way.

>
> Gisi
>
>

-- 
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)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595