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Re: st: Overriding a loop if 0 observations using tabstat
From
Austin Nichols <[email protected]>
To
[email protected]
Subject
Re: st: Overriding a loop if 0 observations using tabstat
Date
Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:41:55 -0400
Vince--
What a wonderful answer, and yes, I will make use of this advice in
some simulation someday!
On Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 5:27 PM, Vince Wiggins, StataCorp
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Really, really, short answer
> ----------------------------
>
> Computers are weird.
>
> Or, more accurately, computers are weird when you operate at the boundary of
> what will fit in their cache memories.
>
>
> Long answer
> -----------
<snip>
> It is unusual to have a problem where ALL of the data for the task can fit
> into cache and you care how long it takes to run your task on this small
> dataset. This might be true if you are bootstrapping or simulating using a
> small dataset. If you have a problem like this, you may be able to speed it
> up by tuning the amount of memory allocated to Stata.
>
> 1) Drop all variables and observations that are not part of
> your analysis
>
> 2) Save the resulting dataset
>
> 3) Set memory to the minimum amount to hold your data and
> perform your analysis. This may require some trial and
> error.
>
> 4) Perform your analysis using the the smaller dataset.
>
> These steps ensure that Stata has no more free space at the end of
> observations than it requires for any temporary variables required to perform
> your analysis.
>
> You might benefit from this recommendation if you regularly work with datasets
> that have only one or two variables and you are doing fast commands (say up to
> and including linear regression). Otherwise, this is rarely worth the trouble.
>
>
> -- Vince
> [email protected]
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