## Monday, January 21, 2019

### Arranging a matrix

This looks like an easy problem [1].

#### Problem statement

Given data $$p_k,\> k=1,\dots,n^2$$ fill an $$n\times n$$ matrix $$x_{i,j}$$ using (all) these numbers, such that the sum of all differences between neighboring cells $$(i,j),(i+1,j)$$ and $$(i,j),(i,j+1)$$ is minimized.

#### Data

To get started, let's first generate some random data.

----     13 PARAMETER p

k1   35.000,    k2  169.000,    k3  111.000,    k4   61.000,    k5   59.000,    k6   45.000,    k7   70.000
k8  172.000,    k9   14.000,    k10 101.000,    k11 200.000,    k12 116.000,    k13 199.000,    k14 153.000
k15  27.000,    k16 128.000,    k17  32.000,    k18  51.000,    k19 134.000,    k20  88.000,    k21  72.000
k22  71.000,    k23  27.000,    k24  31.000,    k25 118.000


Taking this ordering for our matrix $$x_{i,j}$$ gives an objective of 2671. The calculation is as follows:

 Calculation of the objective

The grey matrix is just taking our original random data and lays them out row wise. The light blue matrix elements are the differences $$|x_{i+1,j}-x_{i,j}|$$ while the light green area contains the differences: $$|x_{i,j+1}-x_{i,j}|$$. The objective sums all these differences.

The idea is to find a different ordering of the data into the matrix such that the total sum of differences is minimized.

Trying out all permutations is not really feasible: $25! =15511210043330985984000000$

#### A first conceptual model

To distribute our numbers $$p_k$$ to a matrix $$x_{i,j}$$ we can use the concept of an assignment model:\begin{align}& \sum_{i,j} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall k \\ & \sum_k y_{k,i,j} = 1&&\forall i,j \\ & y_{k,i,j} \in \{0,1\} \end{align} The values can be recovered with $x_{i,j} = \sum_k p_k y_{k,i,j}$ We used here the assignment model paradigm to implement a permutation of a data vector and place them in a matrix layout. The complete model can look like:

High-level model
\begin{align} \min & \sum_{i\lt n,j} |\color{DarkRed} x_{i+1,j}-\color{DarkRed} x_{i,j}| + \sum_{i,j \lt n} |\color{DarkRed} x_{i,j+1}-\color{DarkRed} x_{i,j}|\\ & \sum_{i,j} \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall k \\ & \sum_k \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall i,j \\ & \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j} = \sum_k \color{DarkBlue}p_k \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} \\ & \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} \in \{0,1\} \end{align}

Note that I protected the terms of the objective against out-of-range indexing.

The original problem allowed the data vector $$p_k$$ to have more elements than the matrix $$x_{i,j}$$. This is easily fixed in our model. Rewrite the assignment constraints as: \begin{align} & \sum_{i,j} y_{k,i,j} \le 1 &&\forall k \\ & \sum_k y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall i,j \end{align} In the following, I will focus on our sample data, which has the length of  $$p_k$$ equal to $$n^2$$.

#### Linearization

This model can be easily linearized, e.g. by:

Linearized model
\begin{align} \min & \sum_{i\lt n,j} \color{DarkRed} d^d_{i,j} + \sum_{i,j \lt n} \color{DarkRed} d^r_{i,j}\\ & \sum_{i,j} \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall k \\ & \sum_k \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall i,j \\ & \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j} = \sum_k \color{DarkBlue}p_k \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} \\ & - \color{DarkRed}d^d_{i,j} \le \color{DarkRed} x_{i+1,j}-\color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le \color{DarkRed}d^d_{i,j} &&\forall i\lt n,j \\ & - \color{DarkRed}d^r_{i,j} \le \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j+1}-\color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le \color{DarkRed}d^r_{i,j} &&\forall i,j\lt n \\ & \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} \in \{0,1\} \\ & \color{DarkRed} d^d_{i,j}\ge 0,\color{DarkRed} d^r_{i,j}\ge 0 \end{align}

The variables $$d^d_{i,j}$$ indicate the differences downward and the variables $$d^r_{i,j}$$ are the differences when we look to the right.

This turns out to be a terribly difficult model to solve, even for our small data set. With a $$5 \times 5$$ matrix we end up with $$25\times 25= 625$$ binary $$y$$ variables. This is normally a piece of cake for a good MIP solver. But, in fact, I was unable to solve this model to optimality with this data set by any MIP solver I tried. Even after several hours the gap was still substantial. We are in big, big trouble here.

We can add the extra constraint: $\sum_{i,j} x_{i,j} = \sum_k p_k$ This did not seem to make much difference.

#### A good initial solution

A simple heuristic is to sort the data and place the sorted $$p_k$$ accordingly in the matrix. This gives a good initial solution, although it is not optimal.

 Sorting gives a good initial solution

#### Non-decreasing values

In the above picture the values in the matrix were non-decreasing both row-wise and column wise, i.e.  \begin{align} &x_{i,j} \le x_{i+1,j}\\ &x_{i,j} \le x_{i,j+1}\end{align} Intuitively, it makes sense to organize things like that.  For a 1d vector this is somewhat obvious. For a 2d matrix things are a bit more complex, but it makes sense to start with the smallest value in the left upper corner cell $$x_{1,1}$$, and end with the largest number in the right lower cell $$x_{n,n}$$.

If we explicitly add the constraints that values $$x_{i,j}$$ are both row wise and column wise non-decreasing, we achieve a number of things. First we can simplify the calculation of the differences:

Non-decreasing model
\begin{align} \min & \sum_{j} \color{DarkRed} d^d_{j} + \sum_{i} \color{DarkRed} d^r_{i} \\ & \sum_{i,j} \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall k \\ & \sum_k \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} = 1 &&\forall i,j \\ & \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j} = \sum_k \color{DarkBlue}p_k \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} \\ & \color{DarkRed}d^d_{j} = \color{DarkRed} x_{n,j}-\color{DarkRed} x_{1,j} && \forall j\lt n \\ & \color{DarkRed}d^r_{i} = \color{DarkRed} x_{i,n}-\color{DarkRed} x_{i,1} && \forall i\lt n\\ & \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j} \le \color{DarkRed}x_{i+1,j} && \forall i\lt n,j\\ & \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j} \le \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j+1} && \forall i,j\lt n\\ & \color{DarkRed} y_{k,i,j} \in \{0,1\} \\ & \color{DarkRed} d^d_{j}\ge 0,\color{DarkRed} d^r_{i}\ge 0 \end{align}

Of course, with this assumption, we can fix \begin{align} & x_{1,1} = \min_k p_k \\ & x_{n,n} = \max_k p_k \end{align}

This model solves very fast, and we get the solution depicted above (marked by "optimal solution"). I believe this is the optimal solution for our overall problem, but I have not proven this mathematically.

#### A Constraint Programming formulation

Would a CP model help? First, the formulation can be very different than our MIP model:

• We can use high-level global constraints such as all-different and element (use a variable as an index)
• Everything is integer valued in our problem, which makes CP more viable,
Here is an attempt in Minizinc:

 include "globals.mzn"; int: n=5; int: n2=n*n; array[1..n,1..n] of var int : indx; array[1..n,1..n] of var int : x; var int: z; array[1..n2] of int: p; p = [35,169,111,61,59,45,70,172,14,101,200,116,199,153,27, 128,32,51,134,88,72,71,27,31,118]; constraint forall (i,j in 1..n) (indx[i,j]>=1); constraint forall (i,j in 1..n) (indx[i,j]<=n2); constraint alldifferent([indx[i,j]|i,j in 1..n]); constraint forall (i,j in 1..n) (x[i,j] = p[indx[i,j]]); constraint z =    sum(i in 1..n-1,j in 1..n) (abs(x[i+1,j]-x[i,j])) +    sum(i in 1..n,j in 1..n-1) (abs(x[i,j+1]-x[i,j])); solve minimize z;

The indx[i,j] array is a permutation of $$1,\dots,n^2$$. This is easily implemented using the all-different constraint. This index array can be used to find the values $$x_{i,j}$$ using the so-called element constraint: x[i,j] = p[indx[i,j]]. We use here a decision variable indx as an index of a data vector p.

Secondly, we need to solve this. Although the formulation was easy, solving this (small) problem is not trivial. The standard Minizinc solvers did not get close to our "optimal" solution.

#### Conclusion

The problem of populating a matrix with 25 numbers such that the difference between adjacent cells is minimized, turns out to be maddeningly difficult. Adding ordering conditions: values are non-decreasing row- and column-wise makes the model easy to solve. I don't believe we cut off the optimal solution with this, but I have no formal proof of this.

#### References

1. Algorithm to organize a matrix so that neighbors are closest, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54216526/algorithm-to-organize-a-matrix-so-that-neighbors-are-closest

## Tuesday, January 15, 2019

### Preferences for houses and neighbors

In [1] the following problem was posted:

• We have $$n$$ houses (denoted by index $$j$$)
• and $$m$$  tenants (using index $$i$$).
• Each tenant $$i$$ has a certain preference for a given house. The tenant can express this by providing three preferred houses: 1 for most preferred, and 2 for second most preferred and 3 for the third preferred house.
• Each tenant can also provide three preferred neighbors, using the same scheme: 1 for most preferred neighbor and 2 or 3 for less preferred.

Let's try to build a model for this.

#### Data

The first thing is I assume $$n\ge m$$: the number of houses exceeds the number of tenants.

To make the objective work, we need to decide what score to use when a house or neighbor is not preferred. We cannot just use zero for this, as 1 is most preferred. We can use the number 4, i.e.: 1 is most preferred, through 4: not preferred and then minimize the achieved score.

I like to use 0 as the default however. For this, I recode the preferences as 3 being the most preferred, and 0 being not preferred. Using zero as the default will lead to sparser models.

I generated some random data with 8 tenants and 10 houses:

----     40 PARAMETER hpref  preference for house, recoded, 3=first,2=second,1=third

house1      house2      house3      house4      house6      house7      house8      house9     house10

tenant1                       1                                   3                                   2
tenant2           1                                               2                                               3
tenant3                       1           3                                   2
tenant4                       1                                   2                                   3
tenant5                       2                       1           3
tenant6                                   1                       2                       3
tenant7           1           3                       2
tenant8                                   3                                   1           2

----     40 PARAMETER npref  preference for neighbor, recoded, 3=first,2=second,1=third

tenant1     tenant2     tenant3     tenant4     tenant5     tenant6     tenant7     tenant8

tenant1                       2           1                                               3
tenant2                                                           1                       3           2
tenant3                       3                       2                       1
tenant4                       1                                               2           3
tenant5                       1           3                                               2
tenant6           2                       3           1
tenant7                                   3                       2           1
tenant8           1                                               3           2


The parameter npref can be interpreted as: $\mathit{npref}_{i,i'} = \text{preference provided by tenant i for having tenant i' as neighbor}$ So each row should have three nonzero entries. This matrix is not symmetric. The benefit of having tenants $$i$$ and $$i'$$ as neighbors is $\mathit{npref}_{i,i'}+\mathit{npref}_{i',i}$ The matrix composed of values $$\mathit{npref}_{i,i'}+\mathit{npref}_{i',i}$$ is symmetric. I assume $$\mathit{npref}_{i,i}=0$$, i.e. the diagonal is zero.

In the following I will consider the preferences as a cardinal utility: we can add things up. Theoretically, the preferences may be more like an ordinal utility: only comparison is defined. I will sidestep this issue to make things easier for me.

#### Assignment

The main variables of the model are: $x_{i,j} = \begin{cases} 1 & \text{if tenant i is assigned to house j} \\ 0 & \text{otherwise}\end{cases}$ The assignment constraints can look like: \begin{align} & \sum_j x_{i,j} = 1 & \forall i \\ & \sum_i x_{i,j} \le 1 & \forall j \end{align} This will be the backbone of the model.

#### Housing preferences

The objective related to housing preferences is simple: $\max \> \sum_{i.j} \mathit{hpref}_{i,j} x_{i,j}$

#### Neighbor preferences

The objective that deals with preferences for neighbors, is more complicated. Let's assume all houses are in one long row. Then we can write: $\max \> \sum_{i,i',j} (\mathit{npref}_{i,i'}+\mathit{npref}_{i',i}) x_{i,j} x_{i',j+1}$ This is a quadratic objective. As we shall see later, it can be easily linearized.

#### Complete model

The complete model can look like:

\begin{align} \max \> & \color{DarkBlue} \lambda \color{DarkRed} f_1 + (1-\color{DarkBlue}\lambda) \color{DarkRed} f_2 \\ & \color{DarkRed} f_1 = \sum_{i.j} \color{DarkBlue}{ \mathit{hpref}}_{i,j} \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \\ & \color{DarkRed} f_2 = \sum_{i,i',j} \color{DarkBlue}{(\mathit{npref}}_{i,i'}+\color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{npref}}_{i',i}) \color{DarkRed}x_{i,j} \color{DarkRed}x_{i',j+1} \\ & \sum_j \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} = 1 & \forall i \\ & \sum_i \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le 1 & \forall j \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \in \{0,1\} \end{align}

Here $$\lambda\gt 0$$ is a weight. With $$\lambda = 0.8$$ (most weight on the housing preferences) I see as solution:

----     79 VARIABLE x.L  assignment

house2      house3      house4      house6      house7      house8      house9     house10

tenant1                                           1.000
tenant2                                                                                           1.000
tenant3                                                       1.000
tenant4                                                                               1.000
tenant5       1.000
tenant6                                                                   1.000
tenant7                               1.000
tenant8                   1.000

----     88 PARAMETER hpoints  preference points for house allocation

house2      house3      house4      house6      house7      house8      house9     house10

tenant1                                           3.000
tenant2                                                                                           3.000
tenant3                                                       2.000
tenant4                                                                               3.000
tenant5       2.000
tenant6                                                                   3.000
tenant7                               2.000
tenant8                   3.000

----     88 PARAMETER npoints  preference points for neighbors

tenant2     tenant3     tenant4     tenant6     tenant8

tenant1                   1.000
tenant3                                           4.000
tenant4       1.000
tenant5                                                       3.000
tenant6                               3.000


We can see that tenant3 and tenant6 are neigbors (house 7 and 8) and thus get 4 bonus points.

A solver like Cplex will be able to solve this model as given. There are some reformulations performed under the hood, as the problem as stated is actually non-convex.

Note: some other solvers will refuse this model as a quadratic equality constraint is non-convex. We can fix this by substituting out $$f_2$$. Other solvers will still refuse to solve the model after this reformulation: the Q matrix is not positive definite, while some other solvers recognize this can be linearized. Convex QP/MIQP solvers are not in agreement about what constitutes an acceptable model.

If the houses are not in a single row, the definition of a neighbor may be a bit more complicated. We can define the parameter $\vartheta_{j,j'} = \begin{cases} 1 & \text{if houses j and j' (with j'\gt j) are neighbors}\\ 0 & \text{otherwise}\end{cases}$ and use as objective: $\max \> \sum_{i,i',j,j'} (\mathit{npref}_{i,i'}+\mathit{npref}_{i',i}) \vartheta_{j,j'} x_{i,j} x_{i',j'}$ It is noted that we need to watch out for double counting. Hence $$\vartheta_{j,j'}= 0$$ for $$j'\le j$$.

#### Linearization

If you only have access to a MIP solver, this problem can be easily reformulated into a linear MIP model by observing that $$y_{i,i',j} = x_{i,j} x_{i',j+1}$$ can be linearized as: \begin{align} & y_{i,i',j} \le x_{i,j} \\ & y_{i,i',j} \le x_{i',j+1} \\ & y_{i,i',j} \ge x_{i,j} + x_{i',j+1} - 1 \\& y_{i,i',j} \in \{0,1\} \end{align} Plugging this into our model yields a linear model.

#### References

1. Optimization solution / algorithm for occupying tenants in houses (combinations), https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54146767/optimization-solution-algorithm-for-occupying-tenants-in-houses-combinations

## Sunday, January 6, 2019

### (Pre)solving Killer Sudokus

Killer Sudoku [1] is a variant of Sudoku where an additional constraint is that cells belonging to a cage (the colored regions in the picture) add up to a given value.

 Killer Sudoku (from [1])
As in standard Sudokus, we need to fill each cell with a number $$1,\dots,9$$, and values in each row, column and $$(3 \times 3)$$ box must be unique. In addition, all values in a cage should be unique. In this puzzle we don't see that some cells already have given values: we need to fill-in all the cells. The solution for the above puzzle is:

 Solution (from [1])
Using the standard decision variables for Sudoku puzzles: $x_{i,j,k} = \begin{cases} 1 & \text{if cell (i,j) has value k} \\ 0 & \text{otherwise}\end{cases}$ we can solve this easily with a MIP model. In the model below we use two data structures:

• a mapping $$\mathit{amap}(a,i,j)$$ between area $$a$$ (an area is a row, column or box) and cells $$(i,j)$$: $$\mathit{amap}(a,i,j)$$ is $$\mathit{true}$$ if cell $$(i,j)$$ belongs to area $$a$$,
• a similar mapping $$\mathit{cmap}(c,i,j)$$ between a cage $$c$$ and cell numbers $$(i,j)$$.
With this we can form a compact model:

Killer Sudoku model
\begin{align} & \sum_k \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} = 1 && \forall i,j && \text{One value per cell}\\ & \sum_{i,j| \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{amap}}(a,i,j)} \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} = 1 && \forall a,k && \text{Unique values in each row, column and box} \\ & \sum_{i,j| \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{cmap}}(c,i,j)} \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} \le 1 && \forall c,k && \text{Unique values in each cage}\\ & \sum_{i,j,k| \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{cmap}}(c,i,j)} \color{DarkBlue} k \cdot \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} = \color{DarkBlue} {\mathit{CageSum}}_c && \forall c && \text{Cell values add up to cage sum} \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} \in \{0,1\} \end{align}

There is no objective in this model: we are just looking for a feasible integer solution.

#### Implementation

The equivalent GAMS model can look like:

 set   a     'area' /i1*i9,j1*j9,b1*b9/   i(a)  'rows' /i1*i9/   j(a)  'columns' /j1*j9/   b(a)  'boxes' /b1*b9/   amap(a,i,j) 'mapping area<->cells'   k     'values' /1*9/ ; * * populate amap * rows, columns, and boxes a.k.a nonets * amap(i,i,j) = yes; amap(j,i,j) = yes; amap(b,i,j) = ord(b) = 3*ceil(ord(i)/3) + ceil(ord(j)/3) - 3; display amap; * * cages * sets   c 'cages' /cage1*cage29/   cmap(c,i,j)  'mapping cage<->cells' ; table cageno(i,j) 'cage numbering'       j1 j2 j3 j4 j5 j6 j7 j8 j9   i1   1  1  2  2  2  3  4  5  6   i2   7  7  8  8  3  3  4  5  6   i3   7  7  9  9  3 10 11 11  6   i4  12 13 13  9 14 10 11 15  6   i5  12 16 16 17 14 10 15 15 18   i6  19 16 20 17 14 21 22 22 18   i7  19 20 20 17 23 21 21 24 24   i8  19 25 26 23 23 27 27 24 24   i9  19 25 26 23 28 28 28 29 29 ; cmap(c,i,j) = ord(c)=cageno(i,j); parameter cagesum(c) /   cage1   3,  cage11  20,  cage21  20   cage2  15,  cage12   6,  cage22   6   cage3  22,  cage13  14,  cage23  10   cage4   4,  cage14  17,  cage24  14   cage5  16,  cage15  17,  cage25   8   cage6  15,  cage16  13,  cage26  16   cage7  25,  cage17  20,  cage27  15   cage8  17,  cage18  12,  cage28  13   cage9   9,  cage19  27,  cage29  17   cage10  8,  cage20   6 /; binary variable x(i,j,k); variable z 'obj'; equation    cellvalue(i,j) 'one value per cell'    unique(a,k)    'unique values in each area'    cunique(c,k)   'unique values in each cage'    cagesums(c)    'summation of cage cells'    obj            'dummy objective' ; cellvalue(i,j).. sum(k, x(i,j,k)) =e= 1; unique(a,k)..    sum(amap(a,i,j),x(i,j,k)) =e= 1; cunique(c,k)..   sum(cmap(c,i,j),x(i,j,k)) =l= 1; cagesums(c)..    sum((cmap(c,i,j),k), k.val*x(i,j,k)) =e= cagesum(c); obj..            z =e= 0; model killer /all/; solve killer using mip minimizing z; parameter v(i,j) 'optimal values'; v(i,j) = sum(k, k.val*x.l(i,j,k)); option v:0; display v;

The function $f(i,j) = 3\left\lceil i/3 \right\rceil + \left\lceil j/3 \right\rceil – 3$ maps $$(i,j)$$ to a box number. We can check this by the fragment:

 set   i /i1*i9/   j /j1*j9/ ; parameter f(i,j) 'box number'; f(i,j) = 3*ceil(ord(i)/3) + ceil(ord(j)/3) - 3; display f;

The output of this fragment is:

----      7 PARAMETER f  box number

j1          j2          j3          j4          j5          j6          j7          j8          j9

i1       1.000       1.000       1.000       2.000       2.000       2.000       3.000       3.000       3.000
i2       1.000       1.000       1.000       2.000       2.000       2.000       3.000       3.000       3.000
i3       1.000       1.000       1.000       2.000       2.000       2.000       3.000       3.000       3.000
i4       4.000       4.000       4.000       5.000       5.000       5.000       6.000       6.000       6.000
i5       4.000       4.000       4.000       5.000       5.000       5.000       6.000       6.000       6.000
i6       4.000       4.000       4.000       5.000       5.000       5.000       6.000       6.000       6.000
i7       7.000       7.000       7.000       8.000       8.000       8.000       9.000       9.000       9.000
i8       7.000       7.000       7.000       8.000       8.000       8.000       9.000       9.000       9.000
i9       7.000       7.000       7.000       8.000       8.000       8.000       9.000       9.000       9.000


The results of the complete MIP model are:

----     75 PARAMETER v  optimal values

j1          j2          j3          j4          j5          j6          j7          j8          j9

i1           2           1           5           6           4           7           3           9           8
i2           3           6           8           9           5           2           1           7           4
i3           7           9           4           3           8           1           6           5           2
i4           5           8           6           2           7           4           9           3           1
i5           1           4           2           5           9           3           8           6           7
i6           9           7           3           8           1           6           4           2           5
i7           8           2           1           7           3           9           5           4           6
i8           6           5           9           4           2           8           7           1           3
i9           4           3           7           1           6           5           2           8           9


Sudokus are typically solved in the presolver: the MIP solver does not need to do any Simplex iterations or Branch-and-Bound nodes. We see the same thing here. The Cplex solver log shows:

 MIP Presolve eliminated 608 rows and 724 columns. MIP Presolve modified 882 coefficients. Aggregator did 6 substitutions. All rows and columns eliminated. Presolve time = 0.11 sec. (5.58 ticks) Proven optimal solution. MIP Solution:            0.000000    (0 iterations, 0 nodes)

CBC is also able to solve this without much sweat:

 Calling CBC main solution routine... No integer variables out of 560 objects (560 integer) have costs branch on satisfied N create fake objective Y random cost Y Integer solution of 0 found by feasibility pump after 0 iterations and 0 nodes (0.94 seconds) Search completed - best objective 0, took 0 iterations and 0 nodes (0.96 seconds)

It looks like CBC is not able to presolve the whole model away. It subsequently invokes the feasibility pump (a heuristic to find feasible solutions quickly).

#### Multiple solutions?

We can easily prove this solution is unique, by adding a cut that forbids this solution, and resolving. I added to the model:

equation cut;
cut..
sum((i,j,k),(2*x.l(i,j,k)-1)*x(i,j,k)) =l= sum((i,j,k),x.l(i,j,k))-1;

Indeed this solution is unique: adding the cut made the model infeasible.

#### Unique values in a cage

Firstly, it is noted that for this data set we could have removed the condition that within a cage we only want unique values. This constraint is non-binding: if we remove it we find the same solution. Even stronger: after removing the cunique constraint, we still get a single, unique solution.

An alternative formulation is to combine the constraints unique and cunique into one big equation For this we add the cages $$c$$ to our amap data structure:

 * * populate amap * rows, columns, boxes and cages * amap(i,i,j) = yes; amap(j,i,j) = yes; amap(b,i,j) = ord(b) = 3*ceil(ord(i)/3) + ceil(ord(j)/3) - 3; amap(c,i,j) = cmap(c,i,j); display amap;

Now the simplified model can look like:

Killer Sudoku model 2
\begin{align} & \sum_k \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} = 1 && \forall i,j && \text{One value per cell}\\ & \sum_{i,j| \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{amap}}(a,i,j)} \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} \le 1 && \forall a,k && \text{Unique values in each row, column, box and cage} \\ & \sum_{i,j,k| \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{cmap}}(c,i,j)} \color{DarkBlue} k \cdot \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} = \color{DarkBlue} {\mathit{CageSum}}_c && \forall c && \text{Cell values add up to cage sum} \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j,k} \in \{0,1\} \end{align}

It requires a bit of thought that we can use a $$\le$$ constraint for all uniqueness constraints.

When we solve this model with Cplex, it is interesting to see that the presolver is not as effective:

 MIP Presolve eliminated 328 rows and 382 columns. MIP Presolve modified 825 coefficients. Aggregator did 7 substitutions. Reduced MIP has 280 rows, 341 columns, and 1645 nonzeros. Reduced MIP has 341 binaries, 0 generals, 0 SOSs, and 0 indicators. Presolve time = 0.05 sec. (7.14 ticks) Found incumbent of value 0.000000 after 0.14 sec. (17.27 ticks)

The message  "All rows and columns eliminated" is notably missing.

## Friday, January 4, 2019

### Implied Multiple Objectives

In [1] a simple problem was posed:

Given data:
try to load the trucks such that they have as few different items as possible. It is noted that our total truck capacity is exactly equal to the total quantity.

This looks like a simple, well-stated problem. We can minimize the maximum of the count of different items, or the sum. Here are a few solutions to illustrate this:

If we minimize the max count we can find the first or second solution: both have an optimal max count of 3. If we only focus on the sum, we can find the first or the last solution, both with a sum count of 11. The conclusion is: if we use min max count or min sum count as objective, we may see undesirable outcomes. So, if we want to develop a model that has a preference for solutions like the first one, we actually have to look at both, and use a multiple objective problem:

1. Minimize the max count
2. Minimize the sum count
(It is noted that here we have a case where there is a solution with optimal max count and optimal sum count. Often this is not the case: there may be trade-offs between the different objectives.)

A model using this approach can look like:

Weighted sum multi-objective model
\begin{align} \min \> & \color{DarkRed}{\mathit{MaxCount}} + \color{DarkBlue} w\cdot \color{DarkRed}{\mathit{SumCount}}\\ & \sum_j \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} = \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Quantity}_i} & \forall i \\ & \sum_i \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Capacity}} & \forall j \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le \min(\color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Quantity}_i},\color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Capacity}}) \cdot \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} & \forall i,j \\ & \color{DarkRed}{\mathit{MaxCount}} \ge \sum_i \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} & \forall j \\ & \color{DarkRed}{\mathit{SumCount}} = \sum_{i,j} \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \ge 0 \\ & \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} \in \{0,1\} \end{align}

The scalar $$w>0$$ indicates the trade-off between MaxCount and SumCount.

#### Special Case

If we want to first optimize for MaxCount and then for SumCount, we can choose a small value for $$w$$, e.g. $$w=0.01$$. An alternative approach for this case would be:

1. Solve with objective: $$\min \mathit{MaxCount}$$
2. Fix MaxCount to its optimal value
3. Solve with objective: $$\min \mathit{SumCount}$$

Interestingly, there is a single objective that is an alternative for our multi-objective model:

\begin{align} \min \> & \sum_j \left( \sum_i \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} \right)^2 \\ & \sum_j \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} = \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Quantity}_i} & \forall i \\ & \sum_i \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le \color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Capacity}} & \forall j \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \le \min(\color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Quantity}_i},\color{DarkBlue}{\mathit{Capacity}}) \cdot \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} & \forall i,j \\ & \color{DarkRed} x_{i,j} \ge 0 \\ & \color{DarkRed} y_{i,j} \in \{0,1\} \end{align}
This objective will automatically put more emphasis on the larger column count values $$\sum_i y_{i,j}$$ but still considers the small values. In essence, this is in-between a min max count and min sum count objective. In the picture with the solutions, you can see this objective denoted by sumsq count. This objective can properly distinguish between solution 1 and the other ones.