ptm <- proc.time() pops=read.fwf("/data/SEER/populations/white_black_other/yr1973_2008.seer9/19agegroups.txt", width=c(4,7,2,1,1,1,2, 10), # buffersize=2000000, # added 40 seconds of cost # colClasses=c("integer","character",rep("integer",5),"numeric"), # no help on speed col.names=c('popyear','X0','popseer','poprace','origin','popsex', 'popage','population')) pops=subset(pops,select=c('popyear','popseer','poprace','popsex','popage','population')) save(pops,file="/data/SEER/pops.RData") proc.time() - ptm # ~150 seconds head(pops)