# Another sample\_file format

**URL:** <https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/another-sample-file-format/9825>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [July 22, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/another-sample-file-format/9825 "2019-07-22T01:49:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hemingway](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/hemingway/32/9787_2.png) [@Hemingway](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/Hemingway)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/another-sample-file-format/9825/1 "2019-07-22T01:49:05Z")

</div>

When running  
`stan(model, save_dso = FALSE, sample_file = "rstan_chains.csv", ...)`  
I’m wondering if the `sample_file` can be saved in another format e.g. RDS rather than .csv.

`read_stan_csv()` struggles to read large sample files e.g. \> 2Gb. Thanks