title: Maximum size of pandas dataframe
body: <p>I'm trying to read in a somewhat large dataset using <code>panda</code>s <code>read_csv</code> or <code>read_stata</code> functions, but I keep running into <code>Memory Error</code>s. What is the maximum size of a dataframe? My understanding is that dataframes should be okay as long as the data fits into memory, which shouldn't be a problem for me. What else could cause the memory error?</p>
  
  <p>For context, I'm trying to read in the <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/scf/scf_2007survey.htm#ASCIIDAT" rel="noreferrer">Survey of Consumer Finances 2007</a>, both in ASCII format (using <code>read_csv</code>) and in Stata format (using <code>read_stata</code>). The file is around 200MB as dta and around 1.2GB as ASCII, and opening it in Stata tells me that there are 5,800 variables/columns for 22,000 observations/rows. </p>