R devel - Aug 2008 - Allocated Memory Warnings in Vista 32 bit with 4 GB (PR#12560)

I see no bug here.  R is telling you that you have insufficient memory 
available: see also ?"Memory-limits".

See also rw-FAQ Q2.9.

Note that we don't have a reproducible example and in particular have no 
idea of how many columns this data frame has.

The 'R Data Import/Export' manual gives you many hints on how to do this
more efficiently, and it is referenced from the help page.  I see no sign 
that you have consulted it, so doing your homework is your next (belated) 
step.


On Sun, 17 Aug 2008, drmark at marktab.com wrote:
> Hello
>
> I am running Windows Vista 32 with 4 GB (installed, though Windows of
cours> e only recognizes 3326 MB, as reported by Windows "My
Computer")
And only 2Gb of that is available to a user process.
> I am running R 2.7.1
>
> I was trying to read in a comma delimited single column CSV file, assign
th> at file to a variable ("data") and then extract a sample
(assigned to "part> ial").  I was getting memory allocation errors,
and from the log below, I s> tarted to see a pattern which indicates that the
"error" is related to how > R views memory allocation, and perhaps
how R is using or reading memory on > my specific system.  The error, I would
guess, is probably related to how R> is reporting the memory available.
>
> My source files have the same number of rows (or cases) as the name of the
> file.  Thus, data10000 has 10,000 observations, and data300000 has 300,000
> observations.
>
> Here is my history which shows the problem, and inconsistency in memory
all> ocation reporting:
>
>  > data=3Dread.csv("data10000.csv",header=3DFALSE)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,5000,T)
>  > data=3Dread.csv("data100000.csv",header=3DFALSE)
>  Error in file(file, "r") : cannot open the connection
>  In addition: Warning message:
>  In file(file, "r") :
>    cannot open file 'data100000.csv': No such file or directory
>  > data=3Dread.csv("data300000.csv",header=3DFALSE)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,5000,T)
>  Error: cannot allocate vector of size 2.3 Mb
>  In addition: Warning messages:
>  1: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  3: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  4: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,5,T)
>  Error: cannot allocate vector of size 2.3 Mb
>  In addition: Warning messages:
>  1: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  3: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  4: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,1,T)
>  Warning messages:
>  1: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,1,T)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,5000,T)
>  Error: cannot allocate vector of size 2.3 Mb
>  In addition: Warning messages:
>  1: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  3: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  4: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial[1:5,]
>  [1]  0.3204279  1.6583593 -0.3456585  1.2951363 -1.1096974
>  > rm(partial)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,5000,T)
>  Error: cannot allocate vector of size 2.3 Mb
>  In addition: Warning messages:
>  1: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  3: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  4: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  5: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  6: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial[1:5,]
>  Error: object "partial" not found
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,1,T)
>  Error: cannot allocate vector of size 2.3 Mb
>  In addition: Warning messages:
>  1: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  3: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  4: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,1,T)
>  Warning messages:
>  1: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In attributes(.Data) <- c(attributes(.Data), attrib) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,1,T)
>  > partial=3Dsample(data,5000,T)
>  Error: cannot allocate vector of size 2.3 Mb
>  In addition: Warning messages:
>  1: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  2: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  3: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  4: In names(y) <- make.unique(cols) :
>    Reached total allocation of 1535Mb: see help(memory.size)
>  >=20
>
>
> I have been able to reproduce the situation several times.  For example,
wh> at is curious is that a command like partial=3Dsample(data,1,T) may or
may > not produce a warning message.  In the history, obviously 2.3MB is well
bel> ow the allocated 1535MB.  I had been getting this error on my original
larg> er source data (1,000,000 observations), but since I am a new R user,
it wa> s not clear to me what these errors mean.
>
> If you need the original source files, or have additional questions,
please> let me know.  I am a certified .NET software developer, and although
I do > not know everything about Windows development, I believe my abilities
are a> bove average.
>
>
>
> Mark Tabladillo=20
> Atlanta, GA
> marktab at email.phoenix.edu
> Alternate:  x2008 at marktab.com
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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>
-- 
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