Dear Dan,
one of the possible explanations could be that you are opening a file
for output ("file open ....") and don't close it within iterations.
Than Stata will ultimately run out of handlers (perhaps somebody from
the Stata, Corp could tell more precisely how many files can be opened
simultaneously).
The following article from the M$ knowledgebase gives some support and
an approximate value of how big (small) this limit can be depending on
the version of OS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/163202
Though they mention quite old OSes, there probably is a limit in the
new ones too. There could also be a limit imposed by the compiler,
used to compile Stata. Microsoft's compiler has it's restrictions
described here:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6e3b887c(VS.80).aspx
************* Quote *****************************************
Up to 2,048 files can be open simultaneously at the lowio level (that
is, opened and accessed by means of the _open, _read, _write, and so
forth family of I/O functions). Up to 512 files can be open
simultaneously at the stdio level (that is, opened and accessed by
means of the fopen, fgetc, fputc, and so forth family of functions).
The limit of 512 open files at the stdio level can be increased to a
maximum of 2,048 by means of the _setmaxstdio function.
Because stdio-level functions, such as fopen, are built on top of the
lowio functions, the maximum of 2,048 is a hard upper limit for the
number of simultaneously open files accessed through the C run-time
library.
************* End of quote *****************************************
Hope this helps,
Sergiy Radyakin
On 4/21/08, Dan Weitzenfeld <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
> I'm working on a dofile that loops through a process thousands of
> times. Part of that process includes the following:
>
> ----begin code
>
> use "$directory/REACH_RESULTS.dta", clear
> * random stuff
> save "$directory/REACH_RESULTS.dta", replace
>
> ----end code
>
> I am repeatedly getting the following error
>
> file C:\Documents and Settings\Dan
> Weitzenfeld\Desktop\REACH_RESULTS.dta could not be opened
> r(603);
>
> ...but when this error occurs, Stata has that very file open!
> Moreover, the error is occuring at seemingly random times. That is,
> sometimes it will occur on the 124th run through the loop, while
> others it won't occur until the 865th run through the loop.
> I have had similarly random errors with a different
> computationally-intensive do file. It's as if Stata starts going so
> fast it trips over itself.
> Having done a good deal of coding, I am well aware of how suspicious
> "randomly occurring error" sounds. But trust me, I am changing
> nothing in the do file, there is no randomness within the file, but
> the error occurs at random loop iterations.
> I am using Stata 10 on a Windows XP Professional SP2 on a Dell
> Dimension DXP061 Core2, [email protected], 2GB ram
>
> Has anyone else had this problem?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Dan
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
