Error in Importing csv file

[Arnab Dutta]

Hi,

I am getting the following error message while I am trying to import a csv file into my Stata 12:

"op. sys. refuses to provide memory
Stata's data-storage memory manager has already allocated 1568m bytes and it just attempted to allocate another 16m bytes. The operating system said no. Perhaps you are running another memory consuming task and the command will work later when the task completes. Perhaps you are on a multiuser system that is especially busy and the command will work later when activity quiets down.Perhaps a system administrator has put a limit on what you can allocate; see help memory. Or perhaps that's all the memory your computer can allocate to Stata.
error in line 587965 of file
r(909);"

However, out of 687780 observations 582,872 are getting imported into Stata. There are about 145 variables in the dataset of which 5 are string. I tried setting max memory to 3000m but still I am getting the exact error message. I work on a system with 4 GB RAM. Could anyone help me with an effective solution?

- Arnab Dutta

[Clyde Schechter]

Well, you could try separately importing smaller subsets of the variables, and then -merge-ing the resulting files together (-merge 1:1 _n-). Or you could break the .csv file up into several files with fewer observations, import them separately, and -append- the results together. The advantage of the first approach is that you don't need to tamper with the source file, so the entire process will be documented in your Stata logs.

[Arnab Dutta]

Thanks a lot.