For those using Rstudio, I’ve found that setting Sys.setenv('R_MAX_VSIZE'=32000000000), as has been suggested on multiple StackOverflow posts, only works on the command line, and that setting that parameter while using Rstudio does not prevent this error:
Error: vector memory exhausted (limit reached?)
After doing some more reading, I found this thread, which clarifies the problem with Rstudio, and identifies a solution, shown below:
Step 1: Open terminal,
Step 2:
cd ~ touch .Renviron open .Renviron
Step 3: Save the following as the first line of .Renviron:
R_MAX_VSIZE=100Gb
Note: This limit includes both physical and virtual memory; so setting _MAX_VSIZE=16Gb on a machine with 16Gb of physical memory may not prevent this error. You may have to play with this parameter, depending on the specs of your machine