Thomas Cornelissen <[email protected]> wrote,
> according to the Mata manual -mata drop- "is for use in Mata mode following
> Mata's colon prompt." Does that mean it's not intended for use in a
> program? (I get the error message "invalid expression" when using -mata
> drop- in a mata program.
Yes.
Thomas went on to ask, "Is there an alternative for dropping a matrix in a
mata program?"
Yes there are. There are two cases.
Case 1: Variable is local to the program
-----------------------------------------
Consider a function
function myfunc(....)
{
real matrix X
...
}
Variable X is local to the function (program) myfunc(). What that means
is
1. Variable X is unconnected with any other variable X in any other
function (program) and is unconnected to any global variable named X
that happens to exist
2. A new copy (called an "instance") of X is created each time
myfunc() is invoked.
3. The instance of X is destroyed when execution of myfunc() concludes.
There is no way to get rid of X, but there is no reason you should want to.
In myfunc(), however, there may come a point where X contains a really
big matrix and then later, you don't need that matrix any more. You may
be concerned about the memory that X consumes, particularly if you are
about to create another really big matrix in local variable Y.
In that case, code
X = . (1)
or
X = J(0, 0, .) (2)
The first reduces the memory consumed by X to that of one double. The second
reduces the memory consumed to that of a 0 x 0 matrix. Now, you might
suspect a 0 x 0 matrix takes 0 bytes, but it doesn't. It takes 8 bytes,
just like a double, so I could (1) because it takes less typing.
Case 2: Variable is global
---------------------------
Let us imagine that variable X is an external global. You can
use the method outlined in case 1 to reduce X's memory consumption.
In this case, however, it is possible to get rid of X altogether.
The method is
rmexternal("<name of variable>")
For instance, if X is the name of the global variable, code
rmexternal("X")
There's a detail here that is worth appreciating, and will please you,
but might confuse you in some circumstances. You code -rmexternal("X")-, in
some cases, were you to look, you might discover that X still exists! That
will happen if another function (say your caller or your caller's caller, etc.)
is using X. In that case, Mata will automatically postpone the elimination of
X until the every function stops using X, and then Mata will eliminate it.
-- Bill
[email protected]
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