I came across a curious quirk in the use of the new suffixes in GMPL:  how a 
constraint is formed leads to non-intuitive dual results.

This model:
  # Simple Model 1
  var x1 >= 0;
  var x2 >= 0;
  var s1 >= 0;
  var s2 >= 0;

  s.t. constraint1 : 1.0 = 0.1*x1 + x2 + s1;
  s.t. constraint2 : 1.0 = x1 + 0.2*x2 + s2;
  minimize obj: -x1 - x2;

  solve;

  display constraint1.dual;
  display constraint2.dual;

  end;

displays the two duals as
  constraint1.dual = 0.816326530612245
  constraint2.dual = 0.918367346938776

But changing how constraint1 and constraint2 are written to:
  s.t. constraint1 : 0.1*x1 + x2 + s1 = 1.0;
  s.t. constraint2 : x1 + 0.2*x2 + s2 = 1.0;
displays the two duals as
  constraint1.dual = -0.816326530612245
  constraint2.dual = -0.918367346938776

Using the "--wlp" option, it's easy to see what is occuring.  In the first 
case, the "wlp" output is:
  \* Problem: simple *\

  Minimize
   obj: - x1 - x2

  Subject To
   constraint1: - 0.1 x1 - x2 - s1 = -1
   constraint2: - x1 - 0.2 x2 - s2 = -1

  End
and in the second case the "wlp" output is:

  \* Problem: simple *\

  Minimize
   obj: - x1 - x2

  Subject To
   constraint1: + 0.1 x1 + x2 + s1 = 1
   constraint2: + x1 + 0.2 x2 + s2 = 1

  End
By switching around the terms on the "=" sign, GMPL reversed the signs of all 
of the coefficients.  Which reversed the signs on the duals.

I'm not a fan of the changing of the sign when I plan to use the duals for 
calculations later on; it leads to somewhat random behavior, and makes using 
the new suffixes a little scary for bigger models when it is not easy to know 
the correct sign for each constraint.  Is there really a need to change the 
signs?  I would hope this could be turned off.

-Marc




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