SolverStudio is a free Excel plug-in developed at the University of Auckland that supports

optimization Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

and

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

modelling in a

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

using an

algebraic modeling language Algebraic modeling languages (AML) are high-level computer programming languages for describing and solving high complexity problems for large scale mathematical computation (i.e. large scale optimization type problems). One particular advantage of ...

. It is popular in education, the public sector and industry for optimization users because it uses industry-standard modelling languages and is faster than traditional Excel optimisation approaches. SolverStudio adds a text editor to Excel that is used to create a text-based optimization (or simulation) model using a modelling language such as PuLP,

AMPL AMPL (A Mathematical Programming Language) is an algebraic modeling language to describe and solve high-complexity problems for large-scale mathematical computing (e.g. large-scale optimization and scheduling-type problems). It was developed ...

, GAMS or Julia/JuMP. SolverStudio also provides a tool for naming data on a spreadsheet (and specifying indices for this data), allowing the data to be used in the model. When the model is run, the system automatically reads input data from the spreadsheet and provides it to the model, and then writes the model results back to the spreadsheet. SolverStudio works with a range of commercial and open source modelling systems. By default, it uses PuLP, an open-source Python COIN-OR modelling language. A second open-source Python option is

Pyomo Pyomo is a collection of Python software packages for formulating optimization models. Pyomo was developed by William Hart and Jean-Paul Watson at Sandia National Laboratories and David Woodruff at University of California, Davis. Significan ...

which supports non-linear and stochastic programming and provides access to a larger range of solvers. Another supported linear and non-linear modelling option is Julia/JuMP. SolverStudio also makes the two popular commercial modelling languages,

and GAMS available to Excel users. SolverStudio allows models written using these languages to be solved on the user's own PC, or in the cloud using NEOS. The GNU clone of AMPL, GMPL ( GNU MathProg Language) is included with SolverStudio. SolverStudio includes the open-source COIN-OR CMPL modelling language, and the Python-based SimPy

language. SolverStudio supports general programming using both Python and IronPython, allowing these programming languages to be used to script Excel using the standard VBA interfaces.

References

External links

* SolverStudio web site * {{Official website, coin-or.org COIN-OR, Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research Mathematical optimization software University of Auckland Microsoft Office-related software