[Coin-discuss] Osi MPS import and row/col names

[Lou Hafer]

Pierre,

	You are correct, OSI does not provide for constraint or variable
names at the interface.  A CoinMpsIO object does provide access to row and
column names (via the rowName and colName methods). But there is no OSI
method to provide access to the CoinMpsIO object.

	It's hard to provide specific advice. I'd suggest that what you want
is a readMps (and matching writeMps) that you control. You could derive a
class from one of the solver interfaces and override readMps, or write a
standalone readMps routine that called one of the standard OSI::loadProblem
methods. You can probably borrow the bulk of the code from the readMps
(writeMps) routine of any solver interface.

	The issue is a little more interesting than it appears at first
glance.  Names are necessary to write an MPS file. Right now this means that
individual solver interfaces invent names for any rows and columns not loaded
from an MPS input file. Arguably names are not useful to programs, and
troublesome to manipulate, but they convey a lot more information to humans.

						Lou