User guide > Tables > Table size

The size of a table is the number of cells in the table, that is the number of rows times the number of columns (including totals).

The amount of space occupied by a cell may vary from table to table. In storage terms, unless format DBL is set, single precision mode is used and four bytes or characters per cell are required. If double precision mode is set using format DBL, eight bytes per cell are required.

IMPORTANT: Format DBL should be used when precision to seven or more places is required, for example where the weighted total is greater than one million.

Also, if respondent weighting is used (SELECT WR), then CL generates two matrices, weighted and unweighted for each table, so double the amount of storage is required; eight bytes (F=NDBL) or sixteen bytes (F=DBL) per cell.

There are no limits on the size of a table in CL except that the internal tables file (.ITF) cannot exceed 1000Gb of storage. In MANIP there is a restriction on the number of cells involved in a calculation; for very large tables the MANIP may need to be broken down into manageable blocks of cells.

The size of a table must remain constant when defined more than once.