Solving models with the Gurobi R interface
The Gurobi R interface can be used to solve optimization problems of
the following form:
minimize | ||
subject to | (linear constraints) | |
(bound constraints) | ||
some integral | (integrality constraints) | |
some lie within second order cones | (cone constraints) | |
(quadratic constraints) | ||
some in SOS | (special ordered set constraints) |
Many of the model components listed here are optional. For example, integrality constraints may be omitted. We'll discuss the details of how models are represented shortly.
The function gurobi, described next, allows you to take a model represented using R data structures and solve it with the Gurobi Optimizer.
gurobi | ( model, params=NULL ) |
The two arguments are R list variables, each consisting of multiple named components. The first argument contains the optimization model to be solved. The second contains an optional set of Gurobi parameters to be modified during the solution process. The return value of this function is a list, also consisting of multiple named components. It contains the result of performing the optimization on the specified model. We'll now discuss the details of each of these lists.
The optimization model
As we've mentioned, the model argument to the gurobi function is a list variable, containing multiple named components that represent the various parts of the optimization model. Several of these fields are optional. Note that you refer to a named component of a R list variable by adding a dollar sign to the end of the variable name, followed by the name of the named component. For example, model$A refers to named component A of variable model.
Note that all matrix named components within the model
variable
can be dense or sparse. Sparse matrices should be built using either
sparseMatrix
from the Matrix
package, or
simple_triplet_matrix
from the slam
package.
The following is an enumeration of all of the named components of the model argument that Gurobi will take into account when optimizing the model:
- A
- The linear constraint matrix.
- obj
- The linear objective vector (c vector in the
problem statement). You must specify one
value for each column of A.
- sense
- The senses of the linear constraints. Allowed values are
'=', '<', or '>'. You must
specify one value for each row of A, or a single value to
specify that all constraints have the same sense. This must be a char
array.
- rhs
- The right-hand side vector for the linear constraints (
in the problem statement). You must
specify one value for each row of A.
- lb (optional)
- The lower bound vector. When present, you must
specify one value for each column of A. When absent, each
variable has a lower bound of 0.
- ub (optional)
- The upper bound vector. When present, you must
specify one value for each column of A. When absent, the
variables have infinite upper bounds.
- vtype (optional)
- The variable types. This char array is used to
capture variable integrality constraints. Allowed values are
'C' (continuous), 'B' (binary), 'I' (integer), 'S' (semi-continuous), or 'N'
(semi-integer). Binary variables must be either 0 or 1. Integer
variables can take any integer value between the specified lower and
upper bounds. Semi-continuous variables can take any value between
the specified lower and upper bounds, or a value of zero.
Semi-integer variables can take any integer value between the
specified lower and upper bounds, or a value of zero. When present,
you must specify one value for each column of A, or a
single value to specify that all variables have the same type. When
absent, each variable is treated as being continuous. Refer to
this section for more information
on variable types.
- modelsense (optional)
- The optimization sense. Allowed values
are 'min' (minimize) or 'max' (maximize).
When absent, the default optimization sense is minimization.
- modelname (optional)
- The name of the model. The name appears
in the Gurobi log, and when writing a model to a file.
- objcon (optional)
- The constant offset in the objective function
(
in the problem statement).
- vbasis (optional)
- The variable basis status vector. Used to
provide an advanced starting point for the simplex algorithm. You
would generally never concern yourself with the contents of this
array, but would instead simply pass it from the result of a previous
optimization run to the input of a subsequent run. When present, you
must specify one value for each column of A.
- cbasis (optional)
- The constraint basis status vector. Used to
provide an advanced starting point for the simplex algorithm. Consult
the vbasis description for details. When present, you
must specify one value for each row of A.
- Q (optional)
- The quadratic objective matrix. When present,
Q must be a square matrix whose row and column counts are
equal to the number of columns in A.
- cones (optional)
- Second-order cone constraints. A list of lists. When present, each element in cones defines a single cone
constraint:
. The constraint is defined via
model$cones[[i]]$index = [k
idx], with the first entry in index corresponding to the
index of the variable on the right-hand side of the constraint, and
the remaining entries corresponding to the indices of the variables on
the left-hand side of the constraint.
- quadcon (optional)
- The quadratic constraints. A list of lists. When present, each element in quadcon defines a
single quadratic constraint:
.
The Qc matrix must be a square matrix whose row and column
counts are equal to the number of columns of A. It is
stored in model$quadcon[[i]]$Qc. The optional
q vector defines the linear terms in the constraint. If
present, you must specify a value for q for each column of
A. It is stored in model$quadcon[[i]]$q. The scalar
beta defines the right-hand side of the constraint. It is
stored in model$quadcon[[i]]$rhs.
- sos (optional)
- The Special Ordered Set (SOS) constraints. A
list of lists. When present, each entry in sos
defines a single SOS constraint. A SOS constraint can be of type 1 or
2. The type of SOS constraint is specified via model$sos[[i]]$type. A type 1 SOS
constraint is a set of variables for which at most one variable in the
set may take a value other than zero. A type 2 SOS constraint is an
ordered set of variables where at most two variables in the set may
take non-zero values. If two take non-zeros values, they must be
contiguous in the ordered set. The members of an SOS constraint are
specified by placing their indices in vector model$sos[[i]]$index. Weights
associated with SOS members are provided in vector model$sos[[i]]$weight. Please refer to
this section for details
on SOS constraints.
- pwlobj (optional)
- The piecewise-linear objective functions. A
list of lists. When present, each entry in pwlobj
defines a piecewise-linear objective function of a single variable.
The index of the variable whose objective function is being defined is
stored in model$pwlobj[[i]]$var. The values for
the points that define the piecewise-linear function are stored in
model$pwlobj[[i]]$x. The values in the vector must be in non-decreasing order. The values for the points that define the piecewise-linear function are stored in model$pwlobj[[i]]$y. - start (optional)
- The MIP start vector. The MIP solver will attempt to build an initial solution from this vector. When present, you must specify a start value for each variable. Note that you can set the start value for a variable to NA, which instructs the MIP solver to try to fill in a value for that variable.
gurobi()
function will return an error.
Below is an example that demonstrates the construction of a simple optimization model:
model <- list() model$A <- matrix(c(1,1,0,0,1,1), nrow=2, byrow=T) model$obj <- c(1,1,2) model$modelsense <- 'max' model$rhs <- c(1,1) model$sense <- c('<', '<')
You can also build A
as a sparse matrix,
using either sparseMatrix
or simple_triplet_matrix
:
model$A <- spMatrix(2, 3, c(1, 1, 2, 2), c(1, 2, 2, 3), c(1, 1, 1, 1)) model$A <- simple_triplet_matrix(c(1, 1, 2, 2), c(1, 2, 2, 3), c(1, 1, 1, 1))
Note that the Gurobi interface allows you to specify a scalar value
for any of the array-valued components. The specified value will be
expanded to an array of the appropriate size, with each component of
the array equal to the scalar (e.g., model$rhs <- 1
would be
equivalent to model$rhs <- c(1,1)
in the example).
Parameters
The optional params argument to the gurobi() function is also a list of named components. The name of each named component must be the name of a Gurobi parameter, and the associated value should be the desired value of that parameter. Gurobi parameters allow users to modify the default behavior of the Gurobi optimization algorithms. You can find a complete list of the available Gurobi parameters here.
To create a list that would set the Gurobi Method parameter to 2 and the ResultFile parameter parameter to model.mps, you would do the following:
params <- list(Method=2, ResultFile='model.mps')
We should say a bit more about the ResultFile parameter. If this parameter is set, the optimization model that is eventually passed to Gurobi will also be output to the specified file. The filename suffix should be one of .mps, .lp, .rew, or .rlp, to indicate the desired file format (see the file formats section for details on Gurobi file formats).
The optimization result
The gurobi() function returns a list, with the various results of the optimization stored in its named components. The specific results that are available depend on the type of model that was solved, and the status of the optimization. The following is a list of fields that might be available in the returned result. We'll discuss the circumstances under which each will be available after presenting the list.
- status
- The status of the optimization, returned as a string.
The desired result is 'OPTIMAL', which indicates that an
optimal solution to the model was found. Other status are possible,
for example if the model has no feasible solution or if you set a
Gurobi parameter that leads to early solver termination. See the
Status Code section for further
information on the Gurobi status codes.
- objval
- The objective value of the computed solution.
- runtime
- The elapsed wall-clock time (in seconds) for the
optimization.
- x
- The computed solution. This array contains one entry for each
column of A.
- slack
- The constraint slack for the computed solution. This
array contains one entry for each row of A.
- pi
- Dual values for the computed solution (also known as shadow prices). This array contains one entry for each row of
A.
- rc
- Variable reduced costs for the computed solution. This array
contains one entry for each column of A.
- vbasis
- Variable basis status values for the computed optimal
basis. You generally should not concern yourself with the contents of
this array. If you wish to use an advanced start later, you would
simply copy the vbasis and cbasis arrays into
the corresponding fields for the next model. This array contains one
entry for each column of A.
- cbasis
- Constraint basis status values for the computed optimal
basis. This array contains one entry for each row of A.
- objbound
- Best available bound on solution (lower bound for
minimization, upper bound for maximization).
- itercount
- Number of simplex iterations performed.
- baritercount
- Number of barrier iterations performed.
- nodecount
- Number of branch-and-cut nodes explored.
status
component will be present in all cases. It
indicates whether Gurobi was able to find a proven optimal solution to
the model. In cases where a solution to the model was found, optimal
or otherwise, the objval
, x
, and slack
components will be present. For linear and quadratic programs, if a
solution is available, then the pi
and rc
components
will also be present. Finally, if the final solution is a
basic solution (computed by simplex), then vbasis
and
cbasis
will be present.
The following is an example of how the results of the gurobi()
call might be extracted and output:
result <- gurobi(model, params) print(result$objval) print(result$x)
Please consult this section for a discussion of some of the practical issues associated with solving a precisely defined mathematical model using finite-precision floating-point arithmetic.