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I have a script with a long loop and very long formatted outputs like the following example code:

Do[Print[Style[Table[RandomReal[], {30}, {15}] // MatrixForm, Blue]], {10000}]

In order to display all the output in the desired format and save them into *.nb or *.pdf, at least 2GB memory is needed, which exceeds the available upper limits of x86 OS.

How can I export the formatted results immediately into a *.nb or a PDF file so that the code does not demand so much computer memory?

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  • $\begingroup$ @m_goldberg thank you for editing it! $\endgroup$
    – LCFactorization
    Nov 24, 2013 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ As an aside, I would point out that RandomReal can produce matrices, so your example can be reduced to Do[Print[Style[RandomReal[1., {30, 15}] // MatrixForm, Blue]], {10000}]. $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Nov 25, 2013 at 1:43
  • $\begingroup$ How do you expect to use the output? The file produced, whether .nb or .pdf, will too big, to open in Mathematica on your system. $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Nov 25, 2013 at 1:54
  • $\begingroup$ I'm missing something. If you put 10000 large styled matrices into a PDF file, that file will be big. $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Nov 25, 2013 at 2:34
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, the PDF file will be big; but usually less than 50M and requires very small memory to view it. $\endgroup$
    – LCFactorization
    Nov 25, 2013 at 2:45

1 Answer 1

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I could not generate a notebook with 10000 30 x15 matrices without the Mathematica front-end eating up a good deal more then 2 GB of memory. Best I have done so far is create and save a notebook file with 2500 such matrices. On my system, this used up about 800 MB of Mathematica front-end memory. The good news is that it was done with one line of code: 

CreateDocument @ Table[Style[RandomReal[1., {30, 15}] // MatrixForm, Blue], {2500}];

After saving the newly generated matrix notebook, I quit Mathematica, and then restarted it again by double-clicking on the matrix notebook's icon. The matrix notebook loaded quickly and only used about 4 MB of front-end memory. Using the File > Print... menu items, I was able to create a PDF file with two matrices per page (trying to put more on a page made the numbers too small for comfortable reading).

You asked in chat, how this approach could be modified to handle the case where each matrix generated has a dependency on an iteration variable n. Suppose this dependency was scalar multiplication by n. In this case, n would simply be the first element in the in the iteration control list, the second argument of Table:

CreateDocument @ Table[Style[n RandomReal[1., {30, 15}] // MatrixForm, Blue], {n, 2500}];

Should you adopt this approach, I recommend doing it with a freshly launched front-end session.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you very much. I also tried to "output.pdf"~Create~CreateDocument@ Table[Style[n RandomReal[1., {30, 15}] // MatrixForm, Blue], {n, 2500}]; but Create[] function does not make any pagebreak; unless we handle binary PDF creation operation, this should be the best way to create good looking formatted PDF output. $\endgroup$
    – LCFactorization
    Nov 26, 2013 at 0:21
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    $\begingroup$ @LCFactorization. To get page breaks, image scaling, and other layout controls, I had to use Mathematica's notebook printing tools. On my system, OS X, the print dialog offers "Save as PDF" as an option, so after formatting the notebook for printing, I took advantage of that option. $\endgroup$
    – m_goldberg
    Nov 26, 2013 at 5:39

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