object.size {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: it should be reasonably accurate for atomic vectors, but does not detect if elements of a list are shared, for example. (Sharing amongst elements of a character vector is taken into account.)

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

Associated space (e.g. the enviromment of a function and what the pointer in a `EXTPTRSXP` points to) is not included in the calculation.

Object sizes are larger on 64-bit platforms than 32-bit ones, but will very likely be the same on different platforms with the same word length and pointer size.

### Value

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

### See Also

`Memory-limits` for the design limitations on object size.

### Examples

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

[Package utils version 2.3.1 Index]