0
votes

I am using the linprog function in Matlab to solve a set of large linear programming problems. I have 2601 decision variables, 51 inequality constraints, 71 equality constraints, and lower bounds of 0 for all variables.

The coefficients in the objective function and constraints vary in different problems. I am using the simplex method (when I try active-set and interior-point the program never stops running, as long as I have waited which was more than hours).

The simplex method converges for some of the problems very quickly, and for some of them (also very quickly) shows this message:

Exiting: The constraints are overly stringent; no feasible starting point found.

However, even for the ones with that message, it still provides a solution which satisfy the constraints. Can I just ignore that message and use the solutions or the message is important and the solution is probably not optimum?

Update: It turned out that the interior-point method solves some of them, but not the others. So in the code below, I used the interior-point method for the ones that work with it, and the simplex method with the rest.

These are my files and this is my code:

clc; clear;

%distances
t1 = readtable('t.xlsx', 'ReadVariableNames',false);
ti = table2array(t1);
sz = size(ti);
tiv = reshape(ti, [1,sz(1)*sz(2)]);

%crude oil production and attraction
A = readtable('A.xlsx', 'ReadVariableNames',false);
Ai = table2array(A);
P = readtable('P.xlsx', 'ReadVariableNames',false);
Pi = table2array(P);

%others
one1 = readtable('A Matrix.xlsx', 'ReadVariableNames',false);
one = table2array(one1);
two1 = readtable('Aeq Matrix.xlsx', 'ReadVariableNames',false);
two = table2array(two1);
zero = zeros(sz(1), sz(1));
infin = inf(sz(1), sz(1));
zerov = reshape(zero, [1,sz(1)*sz(2)]);
infinv = reshape(infin, [1,sz(1)*sz(2)]);

%OF
f = (tiv).^1;

%linear program 
%x = linprog(f,A,b,Aeq,beq,lb,ub)
options1 = optimoptions('linprog','Algorithm','interior-point');
options2 = optimoptions('linprog','Algorithm','simplex');
x1999 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(1,1:end),two,Ai(1,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2000 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(2,1:end),two,Ai(2,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2001 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(3,1:end),two,Ai(3,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2002 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(4,1:end),two,Ai(4,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2003 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(5,1:end),two,Ai(5,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2004 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(6,1:end),two,Ai(6,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2005 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(7,1:end),two,Ai(7,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2006 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(8,1:end),two,Ai(8,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2007 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(9,1:end),two,Ai(9,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2008 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(10,1:end),two,Ai(10,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2009 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(11,1:end),two,Ai(11,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2010 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(12,1:end),two,Ai(12,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2011 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(13,1:end),two,Ai(13,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2012 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(14,1:end),two,Ai(14,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
x2013 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(15,1:end),two,Ai(15,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2014 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(16,1:end),two,Ai(16,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2015 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(17,1:end),two,Ai(17,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options2),sz(1));
x2016 = vec2mat(linprog(f,one,Pi(18,1:end),two,Ai(18,1:end),zerov,infinv,zerov,options1),sz(1));
1
You cannot ignore this, if no BFS can be found then no optimization has been performed yet. Perhaps you have constraints that require too much precision to be satisfied, such as two inequalities that together imply an equality. It may help if you show some, preferably the smallest failing problem that you can make. - harold
I added the code and my input files. Thank you for spending time on this. - Fred
I had a few issues with linprog as well, have a look at IBM CPLEX for Matlab, it is free for academic use www-03.ibm.com/software/products/fr/ibmilogcpleoptistud - Marouen
Thank you, Marouen. - Fred

1 Answers

1
votes

In case somebody wants to know what the problem was, I found that for those programs with error, there was actually no feasible point and what the error said was correct. I found it out by running the same linear programs with a vector of zeros for the objective function's coefficients, and getting the same error (recommended method by Matlab's manual).