What's New Table of Contents |
What's New in SAS/OR 9.1.3, Release 2
Overview
SAS/OR software, version 9.1.3, release 2 contains several new and enhanced features. Brief descriptions of the new features appear in the following sections. For more information, refer to the SAS/OR documentation, which is now available in the following six volumes:
- SAS/OR User's Guide: Bills of Material Processing
- SAS/OR User's Guide: Constraint Programming
- SAS/OR User's Guide: Local Search Optimization
- SAS/OR User's Guide: Mathematical Programming
- SAS/OR User's Guide: Project Management
- SAS/OR User's Guide: The QSIM Application
The online help can also be found under the corresponding classification.
The NETFLOW Procedure
The NETFLOW procedure in SAS/OR User's Guide: Mathematical Programming contains a new experimental feature in SAS 9.1.3 release 2, which enables you to specify and solve generalized network problems. A new option, GENNET, is available in the call to PROC NETFLOW. This option is used to explicitly indicate that the network is generalized. With the new EXCESS= option, the NETFLOW procedure is now capable of solving an even wider variety of problems. These include:
- networks with excess supply or demand
- networks containing nodes with unknown supply and demand values
- maximum flow problems
- networks with nodes having range constraints on supply and demand
The OPTLP Procedure - Experimental
The new OPTLP procedure in SAS/OR User's Guide: Mathematical Programming is an experimental linear programming solver for problems that are submitted in an MPS-format SAS data set.
The MPS-format SAS data set, which corresponds closely to the commonly used MPS-format file, is newly introduced in SAS 9.1.3 release 2.
PROC OPTLP provides three solvers to solve the LP: primal simplex, dual simplex, and interior point. The simplex solvers implement a two-phase simplex method, and the interior point solver implements a primal-dual predictor-corrector algorithm.
The OPTMODEL Procedure - Experimental
The new OPTMODEL procedure in SAS/OR User's Guide: Mathematical Programming provides a modeling environment tailored to building, solving, and maintaining optimization models. This makes the process of translating the symbolic formulation of an optimization model into OPTMODEL virtually transparent since the modeling language mimics the symbolic algebra of the formulation as closely as possible. OPTMODEL also streamlines and simplifies the critical process of populating optimization models with data from SAS data sets. All of this transparency produces models that are more easily inspected for completeness and correctness, more easily corrected, and more easily modified, whether through structural changes or through the substitution of new data for old.
The OPTMODEL procedure comprises the powerful OPTMODEL modeling language and state-of-the-art solvers for several classes of mathematical programming problems. In SAS 9.1.3 release 2, four experimental solvers are available to OPTMODEL:
| Problem | Solver |
| Linear Programming | LP |
| Nonlinear Programming, Linearly Constrained | NLPC |
| Nonlinear Programming, Unconstrained | NLPU |
| General Nonlinear Programming | SQP |
The OPTQP Procedure - Experimental
The new OPTQP procedure in SAS/OR User's Guide: Mathematical Programming is an experimental quadratic programming solver for problems that are submitted in a QPS-format SAS data set.
The QPS-format SAS data set, which corresponds closely to the QPS-format file, is newly introduced in SAS 9.1.3 release 2.
The Earned Value Management Macros - Experimental
The set of earned value management macros is a supplement to the current procedures in SAS/OR User's Guide: Project Management to meet your need in earned value management. Two distinct types of macros are included: one for analysis and one for reporting. The former is used to analyze schedule and cost data and to derive earned value metrics. The latter is used to graphically represent the results from the analysis.
Microsoft Project Conversion Macros - Experimental
The SAS macros %MDBTOPM and %MP2KTOPM are used for converting MDB files saved by Microsoft Project 98 and Microsoft Project 2000 (and later), respectively. These two macros are now wrapped into the macro %MSPTOSAS in SAS 9.1.3 release 2. The %MSPTOSAS macro converts Microsoft Project 98 (and later) data. The macro generates the necessary SAS data sets, determines the values of the relevant options, and enables you to invoke an instance of the PM procedure with the converted project data. Execution of this macro requires SAS/ACCESS software.