[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Re: Estimating memory usage of expressions

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg109023] Re: Estimating memory usage of expressions
• From: David Bailey <dave at removedbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 06:55:58 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <hpkgl2$81m$1@smc.vnet.net>

Jim Lambaugh wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Is there a way to estimate how many bytes the different expressions in
> Mathematica take from the memory? For example I wish to know how many
> bytes a NxN matrix with real entries is, the list of its eigenvectors,
> eigenvalues etc.
> 
> I know of the command "ByteCount", but the results I get are not
> consistent, i.e. a list of 1 integers does not take up the same amount
> of memory as one single integer etc. So: Is there a way to estimate
> these things? I'm running on a 32-bit system (if that makes a
> difference).
> 
There are lots of complications here. First of all, lists (vectors and 
matrices) can be stored in two formats - packed and unpacked. There are 
several functions available in the Developer` context that will test if 
a list is packed, and also convert to/from packed format if possible. 
Some functions deliver a packed result, but others, such as Import don't 
seem to do so - at least in all cases.

Packed and unpacked arrays behave the same way in Mathematica, but 
packed arrays are more efficient and use less storage.

A list of one element is not the same as that element itself, and I 
would expect the list to require more storage.

As I remember, it is also possible in certain circumstances for 
expressions to share storage!

Packed arrays of Real numbers will use 8 bytes per element - possibly 
with a small fixed overhead.

Packed integer arrays will require 4 bytes per element, also with a 
fixed overhead.

If you want to use packed format, and you presumably do, you need to 
ensure that a real array does not contain any integer elements (such as 
1 or 0) by using N if necessary before trying to pack the result.

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk