[R] Error: cannot allocate vector of size 3.0 Gb

[John]

On Friday 28 March 2008 14:28, Daniel Nordlund wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
> > On Behalf Of John
> > Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 12:04 PM
> > To: r-help at r-project.org
> > Subject: [R] Error: cannot allocate vector of size 3.0 Gb
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have read recent posts on this topic (Dr. Ronnen Levinson's Monday
> > 02:39:55 pm), but before I install a 64 bit system, and purchase more
> > RAM, I want to make sure I understand this interesting issue.
> >
> > I was attempting to plot a data frame containing Dow Jones stock 
information:
> > > length(Date)
> >
> > [1] 19957
> >
> > > length(Close)
> >
> > [1] 19957
> >
> > > head(DowJones)
> >
> >       Date     Open     High      Low    Close     Volume Adj.Close
> > 1 03/26/08 12531.79 12531.79 12309.62 12422.86 4055670000  12422.86
> > 2 03/25/08 12547.34 12639.82 12397.62 12532.60 4145120000  12532.60
> > 3 03/24/08 12361.97 12687.61 12346.17 12548.64 4499000000  12548.64
> > 4 03/20/08 12102.43 12434.34 12024.68 12361.32 2078450000  12361.32
> > 5 03/19/08 12391.52 12525.19 12077.27 12099.66 1203830000  12099.66
> > 6 03/18/08 11975.92 12411.63 11975.92 12392.66 1263390000  12392.66
> >
> > > tail(DowJones)
> >
> >           Date   Open   High    Low  Close  Volume Adj.Close
> > 19952 10/08/28 240.17 243.33 237.72 239.55 3940000    239.55
> > 19953 10/05/28 240.00 243.08 238.22 240.44 4360000    240.44
> > 19954 10/04/28 237.75 242.53 237.72 240.00 4330000    240.00
> > 19955 10/03/28 238.14 239.14 233.60 237.75 4060000    237.75
> > 19956 10/02/28 240.01 241.54 235.42 238.14 3850000    238.14
> > 19957 10/01/28 239.43 242.46 238.24 240.01 3500000    240.01
> >
> > > plot(Date, Close)
> >
> > Error: cannot allocate vector of size 3.0 Gb
> >
> >
> >
> > I currently have installed R 2.60, from source, onto Linux SuSE 10.2. I
> >
> > believe it is a 32 bit install:
> > > dmesg | grep bit
> > > ...
> > > hpet0: 3 32-bit timers, 25000000 Hz
> >
> > I have 1GB of RAM, with circa 883.61 not allocated to hardware after
> > boot. I naively thought 19957 rows of data would be easily handled by a
> > fairly new computer. R was able to cease execution, and place control
> > back onto its interpreter, while a Chart attempt in OpenOffice locks up
> > OpenOffice.
> >
> > So,  will installation of a 64 bit Operating System, and at least an
> > additional 1GB of RAM  suffice to generate memory space for a 3.0 Gb
> > vector, in R?
>
> John,
>
> Am I missing something here?  You have one 1 GB of RAM, you want to get a
> second 1 GB of RAM, and you want to know if you will be able to create a 3
> GB vector?  With or without a 64bit OS, I don't think you will be
> successful.  In addition to total memory available, I believe you need to
> have sufficient contiguous memory to allocate an object.  If memory is
> fragmented, you won't be able to create the vector, even if the total free
> space is sufficient.  If I am incorrect, I'm sure someone will be along to
> correct me shortly.
>
> Hope this is helpful,
>
> Dan
>
> Daniel Nordlund
> Bothell, WA
>
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Hi Daniel,

Thank you for the information. It has saved me from needlessly installing a 
64-bit linux instance. In the short term, I'll try and generate multiple 
graphs, side by side. And purchase more RAM. A lot more.

Enjoying the notion of multiple plots in R,

John