I am using the -contract- command to make a smaller version of a very very
large file on a unix system. The file is so large that I may need to use
virtual memory. The large file is also sorted by most of the variables
that I will -contract- on, hence, cases with the same values are clustered
together. My question is whether there is a way to make -contract- take
advantage of this clustering. I anticipate that if this is possible only
one pass of the data will be needed, whereas if it is not possible, I am
not sure how many passes will be needed. As the file is over 7GB,
contains more than 10 million cases, and may necessitate the use of
virtual memory, any such savings would be substantial. Any assistance is
greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Sam
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