object.size              package:utils              R Documentation

Report the Space Allocated for an Object

Description:

     Provides an estimate of the memory that is being used to store an
     R object.

Usage:

     object.size(x)

Arguments:

       x: An R object.

Details:

     Exactly which parts of the memory allocation should be attributed
     to which object is not clear-cut.  This function merely provides a
     rough indication.  For example, it will not detect if character
     storage for character strings are shared between identical
     elements (which it will be if 'rep' was used, for example).

     The calculation is of the size of the object, and excludes the
     space needed to store its name in the symbol table.

Value:

     An estimate of the memory allocation attributable to the object,
     in bytes.

Examples:

     object.size(letters)
     object.size(ls)
     ## find the 10 largest objects in base
     z <- sapply(ls("package:base"), function(x) object.size(get(x, envir=NULL)))
     as.matrix(rev(sort(z))[1:10])

