Re: st: Re: Setting memory

[Ronnie Babigumira <rb.glists@gmail.com>]

Micheal

Good stuff. -usemem- has entered the building

Many thanks

Ronnie

Michael Blasnik wrote:
> ..
> You may just want to write your own file opening ado that allocates memory 
> automatically.  I've included the ado that I use below.  In Windows, I 
> change the action of the file association so that double clicking a dta file 
> calls -usemem- rather than -use-.
>
> You might want to customize it for your machine and typical usage.  The key 
> line to edit would be the one that begins -local needmem=...-.  The 10 on 
> that line refers to the smallest amount of memory I will allocate to a 
> dataset, regardless of its size.  The 1200 refers to the maximum amount of 
> memory I will allocate (since I usually can't get Windows XP to allocate 
> much more than that), and the formula in the middle is what is used between 
> these extremes based on approximates 1.5 times the dataset size.  This 
> allocation doesn't always work out, especially if I'm adding a lot of 
> variables or doing a large merge after I open it, but it tends to work often 
> enough.  The ado also reduces the current memory allocation if it is greater 
> than 10 times the calculated memory need.
>
> program define usemem
> version 8.2
> qui memory
> local totmem=r(M_total)/(1024^2)
> qui {
> de using "`1'"
> local needmem=min(max(10,round(1.5*r(N)*r(width)/(1024^2),1)) ,1200)
> if `totmem'<`needmem'   set memory `needmem'm
> if `totmem'>(`needmem'*10) {
>                 local needmem=int(`needmem'*10)
>                 set memory `needmem'm
>         }
> }
> use "`1'"
> end
>
>
> Michael Blasnik
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ronnie Babigumira" <rb.glists@gmail.com>
> To: <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 6:36 AM
> Subject: st: Setting memory
>
>
>
> > Setting memory is something I have always done by try and error. However, 
> > recently more than 2 people have asked me if there is a smarter way of 
> > knowing roughly how much memory to set before trying to read in a dataset. 
> > Does anyone have any ideas (for example, would the size of the data or the 
> > number of variables be helpful)
> >
> > Ronnie
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