object.size               package:base               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)))
     as.matrix(rev(sort(z))[1:10])

