The MPS-Format SAS Data Set


BRANCH Section (Optional)

Sometimes you want to specify branching priorities or directions for integer variables to improve performance. Variables with higher priorities are branched on before variables with lower priorities. The branch direction is used to decide which branch to take first at each node. For more information, see the section Branching Priorities.

  • Indicator record:

    Field1

    Field2

    Field3

    Field4

    Field5

    Field6

    BRANCH

    Blank

    Blank

    .

    Blank

    .

  • Data record:

    Field1

    Field2

    Field3

    Field4

    Field5

    Field6

    Branch direction

    Blank

    First column name

    First column priority

    Second column name

    Second column priority

Notes:

  1. Valid directions include UP (up branch), DN (down branch), RD (rounding) and CB (closest bound). If field1 is blank, the solver automatically decides the direction.

  2. If field4 is missing, then the name defined in field3 is ignored. Similarly, if field6 is missing, then the name defined in field5 is ignored.

  3. The priority value in field4 and field6 must be nonnegative. Zero is the lowest priority and is also the default.