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