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AMPL

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  • 5 chapters

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Through Solver, Open-source software and Mathematical optimization

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One advantage of AMPL is the similarity of its syntax to the mathematical notation of optimization problems. This allows for a very concise and readable definition of problems in the domain of optimization. Many modern solvers available on the NEOS Server (formerly hosted at the Argonne National Laboratory, currently hosted at the University of Wisconsin, Madison) accept AMPL input. According to the NEOS statistics AMPL is the most popular format for representing mathematical programming problems.

Features

AMPL features a mix of declarative and imperative programming styles. Formulating optimization models occurs via declarative language elements such as sets, scalar and multidimensional parameters, decision variables, objectives and constraints, which allow for concise description of most problems in the domain of mathematical optimization.

Procedures and control flow statements are available in AMPL for

  • the exchange of data with external data sources such as spreadsheets, databases, XML and text files
  • data pre- and post-processing tasks around optimization models
  • the construction of hybrid algorithms for problem types for which no direct efficient solvers are available.

To support re-use and simplify construction of large-scale optimization problems, AMPL allows separation of model and data.

AMPL supports a wide range of problem types, among them:

AMPL invokes a solver in a separate process which has these advantages:

  • User can interrupt the solution process at any time
  • Solver errors do not affect the interpreter
  • 32-bit version of AMPL can be used with a 64-bit solver and vice versa

Interaction with the solver is done through a well-defined nl interface.

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Source and licence. Adapted from the Wikipedia article “AMPL” (this version, 2024-10-09) by its contributors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Lablypedia has left out its tables, references and most pictures, and linked it to other Lablypedia articles.