R help - Mar 1999 - lm() using data frames

Under NT 4.0, using Version 0.63.2 Beta (Jan 12, 1999):

Not sure if this is a bug or a feature (forcing me to program less
clumsily) so I'll report it here rather than to bugs.

With a medium size data set (1700 observations,70 explanatory variables)
and plenty of memory, specifically
> gc()
          free   total
Ncells  886738 1000000
Vcells 7912909 8388608

I get a fatal error when attempting summary() on the fit of an lm() on a
large-ish set of dummy variables (stored in a matrix):

Call:
lm(formula = sasch2[, "ddiff"] ~ sasch2[, "td30"] + sasch2[,
"td60"]
+ sasch2[, "td90"] + sasch2[,  "td120"] + +sasch2[,    
"td180"] +
sasch2[, "td240"] + sasch2[, "td300"] + sasch2[,    
"td360"] +
sasch2[, "td420"] + sasch2[, "td480"] + sasch2[,    
"db1"] + sasch2[,
"db1.5"] + sasch2[, "db2"] +  sasch2[, "db2.5"] + 
+sasch2[, "db3.5"]
+ sasch2[, "db4"] + sasch2[, "db4.5"] +     sasch2[,
"db5"] +  sasch2[,
"db5.5"] + +sasch2[, "db6"] +     sasch2[,
"db6.5"] + sasch2[, "db7"] +
sasch2[, "db7.5"] +      sasch2[, "db8"] + +sasch2[,
"db8.5"] + sasch2[,
"db9"] +     sasch2[, "db9.5"])

I get estimates OK, but summary() collapses. However, if I do the same
thing less clumsily, by writing all the relevant variables to a new data
frame, and then calling

Call:
lm(formula = ddiff ~ ., data = dtmp)

I get not only the estimates but can also summary() with no problem.

Any ideas why? Seems to be memory-linked, because I can lm() and
summary() the matrix versions using only the sasch2[,'td*'] or db*
variable sets.

Simon Fear

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Simon Fear <fears at roycastle.liv.ac.uk> writes:
> Under NT 4.0, using Version 0.63.2 Beta (Jan 12, 1999):
> 
> Not sure if this is a bug or a feature (forcing me to program less
> clumsily) so I'll report it here rather than to bugs.
....
> I get a fatal error when attempting summary() on the fit of an lm() on a
> large-ish set of dummy variables (stored in a matrix):
Fatal errors are bugs and need to be reported (unless they involve
bugs in your own dyn.loaded code or very sleazy programming
techniques). Do you think that you can cook up an example showing this
behaviour, preferably using simulated data, so that we don't get
r-bugs clogged up with huge data sets? Would be nice to know whether
it also happens on Unix (and much easier to debug if it does).

(I smell a deparse()-length-limit rat or somesuch here...)

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907
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