Integer Programming

Abstract

In the types of linear programming problems that have been discussed so far in this book it has been assumed that the resources can be divided into fractional sized parts. It is, however, either not practical or completely infeasible to do this in many actual cases. Typical problems which do not allow partial allocations include the choice of the number of power lines that are to connect various points; allocation of aircraft or trains to particular routes; production of motor cars; and all other production problems where the product must be a whole number. In these, and other cases, it is necessary to ensure that the final answer is in the form of whole or integer numbers. Later in this chapter some examples are given of problems which can be described by linear restrictions provided the variables are constrained to be integers.