# problem.py¶

## Problem¶

class picos.Problem(**options)

This class represents an optimization problem. The constructor creates an empty problem. Some options can be provided under the form key = value. See the list of available options in the doc of set_all_options_to_default()

add_constraint(cons, key=None, ret=False)

Adds a constraint in the problem.

Parameters: cons (Constraint) – The constraint to be added. key (str.) – Optional parameter to describe the constraint with a key string. ret (bool.) – Do you want the added constraint to be returned ? This can be a useful handle to extract the optimal dual variable of this constraint or to delete the constraint with delete(). Note: The constraint is always returned if the option return_constraints is set to True.
add_list_of_constraints(lst, it=None, indices=None, key=None, ret=False)

adds a list of constraints in the problem. This fonction can be used with python list comprehensions (see the example below).

Parameters: lst – list of Constraint. it (None or str or list.) – Description of the letters which should be used to replace the dummy indices. The function tries to find a template for the string representations of the constraints in the list. If several indices change in the list, their letters should be given as a list of strings, in their order of appearance in the resulting string. For example, if three indices change in the constraints, and you want them to be named 'i', 'j' and 'k', set it = ['i','j','k']. You can also group two indices which always appear together, e.g. if 'i' always appear next to 'j' you could set it = [('ij',2),'k']. Here, the number 2 indicates that 'ij' replaces 2 indices. If it is set to None, or if the function is not able to find a template, the string of the first constraint will be used for the string representation of the list of constraints. indices (str.) – a string to denote the set where the indices belong to. key (str.) – Optional parameter to describe the list of constraints with a key string. ret (bool.) – Do you want the added list of constraints to be returned ? This can be useful to access the duals of these constraints. Note: The constraint is always returned if the option return_constraints is set to True.

Example:

>>> import picos as pic
>>> import cvxopt as cvx
>>> prob=pic.Problem()
>>> x=[prob.add_variable('x[{0}]'.format(i),2) for i in range(5)]
>>> x #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# variable x[0]:(2 x 1),continuous #,
# variable x[1]:(2 x 1),continuous #,
# variable x[2]:(2 x 1),continuous #,
# variable x[3]:(2 x 1),continuous #,
# variable x[4]:(2 x 1),continuous #]
>>> IJ=[(1,2),(2,0),(4,2)]
>>> w={}
>>> for ij in IJ:
...
>>> u=pic.new_param('u',cvx.matrix([2,5]))
... [u.T*x[i]<y[i] for i in range(5)],
... 'i',
... '[5]')
>>>
... [abs(w[i,j])<y[j] for (i,j) in IJ],
... [('ij',2)],
... 'IJ')
>>>
... [y[t] > y[t+1] for t in range(4)],
... 't',
... '[4]')
>>>
>>> print(prob) #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
---------------------
optimization problem (SOCP):
24 variables, 9 affine constraints, 12 vars in 3 SO cones
<BLANKLINE>
w   : dict of 3 variables, (3, 1), continuous
x   : list of 5 variables, (2, 1), continuous
y   : (5, 1), continuous
<BLANKLINE>
find vars
such that
u.T*x[i] < y[i] for all i in [5]
||w[ij]|| < y[ij__1] for all ij in IJ
y[t] > y[t+1] for all t in [4]
---------------------

add_variable(name, size=1, vtype='continuous', lower=None, upper=None)

adds a variable in the problem, and returns the corresponding instance of the Variable.

For example,

>>> prob=pic.Problem()
>>> x
# variable x:(3 x 1),continuous #

Parameters: name (str.) – The name of the variable. size (int or tuple.) – The size of the variable. Can be either: an int n , in which case the variable is a vector of dimension n or a tuple (n,m), and the variable is a n x m-matrix. vtype (str.) – variable type. Can be: 'continuous' (default), 'binary': 0/1 variable 'integer': integer valued variable 'symmetric': symmetric matrix 'antisym': antisymmetric matrix 'complex': complex matrix variable 'hermitian': complex hermitian matrix 'semicont': 0 or continuous variable satisfying its bounds (supported by CPLEX and GUROBI only) 'semiint': 0 or integer variable satisfying its bounds (supported by CPLEX and GUROBI only) lower (Any type recognized by the function _retrieve_matrix().) – a lower bound for the variable. Can be either a vector/matrix of the same size as the variable, or a scalar (in which case all elements of the variable have the same lower bound). upper (Any type recognized by the function _retrieve_matrix().) – an upper bound for the variable. Can be either a vector/matrix of the same size as the variable, or a scalar (in which case all elements of the variable have the same upper bound). An instance of the class Variable.
check_current_value_feasibility(tol=1e-05)

returns True if the current value of the variabless is a feasible solution, up to the tolerance tol. If tol is set to None, the option parameter options['tol'] is used instead. The integer feasibility is checked with a tolerance of 1e-3.

constraints = None

list of all constraints

convert_quad_to_socp()

replace quadratic constraints by equivalent second order cone constraints

convert_quadobj_to_constraint()

copy()

creates a copy of the problem.

countCons = None

numner of (multidimensional) constraints

countGeomean = None

number of geomean (and other nonstandard convex) inequalities

countVar = None

number of (multidimensional) variables

dualize()

Returns a Problem containing the Lagrangian dual of the current problem self. More precisely, the current problem is parsed as a problem in a canonical primal form (cf. the note on dual variables of the tutorial), and the corresponding dual form is returned.

get_constraint(ind)

returns a constraint of the problem.

Parameters: ind (int or tuple.) – There are two ways to index a constraint. if ind is an int , then the nth constraint (starting from 0) will be returned, where all the constraints are counted in the order where they were passed to the problem. if ind is a tuple , then the ith constraint from the kth group of constraints is returned (starting from 0). By group of constraints, it is meant a single constraint or a list of constraints added together with the function add_list_of_constraints(). if ind is a tuple of length 1 , then the list of constraints of the kth group is returned.

Example:

>>> import picos as pic
>>> import cvxopt as cvx
>>> prob=pic.Problem()
>>> x=[prob.add_variable('x[{0}]'.format(i),2) for i in range(5)]
... [(1|x[i])<y[i] for i in range(5)],
... 'i',
... '[5]')
>>> print(prob) #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
---------------------
optimization problem (LP):
15 variables, 10 affine constraints
<BLANKLINE>
x   : list of 5 variables, (2, 1), continuous
y   : (5, 1), continuous
<BLANKLINE>
find vars
such that
〈 |1| | x[i] 〉 < y[i] for all i in [5]
y > |0|
---------------------
>>> prob.get_constraint(1)                              #2d constraint (numbered from 0)
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[1] 〉 < y[1] #
>>> prob.get_constraint((0,3))                          #4th consraint from the 1st group
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #
>>> prob.get_constraint((1,))                           #unique constraint of the 2d 'group'
# (5x1)-affine constraint: y > |0| #
>>> prob.get_constraint((0,))                           #list of constraints of the 1st group #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[0] 〉 < y[0] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[1] 〉 < y[1] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[2] 〉 < y[2] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[4] 〉 < y[4] #]
>>> prob.get_constraint(5)                              #6th constraint
# (5x1)-affine constraint: y > |0| #

get_valued_variable(name)

Returns the value of the variable (as an cvxopt matrix) with the given name. If name refers to a list (resp. dict) of variables, named with the template name[index] (resp. name[key]), then the function returns the list (resp. dict) of these variables.

Parameters: name (str.) – name of the variable, or of a list/dict of variables.

Warning

If the problem has not been solved, or if the variable is not valued, this function will raise an Exception.

get_variable(name)

Returns the variable (as a Variable) with the given name. If name refers to a list (resp. dict) of variables, named with the template name[index] (resp. name[key]), then the function returns the list (resp. dict) of these variables.

Parameters: name (str.) – name of the variable, or of a list/dict of variables.
is_continuous()

Returns True if there are only continuous variables

maximize(obj, **options)

sets the objective (‘max’,obj) and calls the function solve() .

minimize(obj, **options)

sets the objective (‘min’,obj) and calls the function solve() .

numberAffConstraints = None

total number of (scalar) affine constraints

numberConeConstraints = None

number of SOC constraints

numberConeVars = None

number of auxilary variables required to handle the SOC constraints

numberLSEConstraints = None

number of LogSumExp constraints (+1 if the objective is a LogSumExp)

numberLSEVars = None

number of vars in LogSumExp expressions

numberOfVars = None

total number of (scalar) variables

numberQuadConstraints = None

numberQuadNNZ = None

number of nonzero entries in the matrices defining the quadratic expressions

numberSDPConstraints = None

number of SDP constraints

numberSDPVars = None

size of the s-vecotrized matrices involved in SDP constraints

obj_passed = None

list of solver instances where the objective has been passed

obj_value()

If the problem was already solved, returns the objective value. Otherwise, it raises an AttributeError.

remove_all_constraints()

Removes all constraints from the problem This function does not remove hard-coded bounds on variables; use the function remove_all_variable_bounds() to do so.

remove_all_variable_bounds()

remove all the lower and upper bounds on variables (i.e,, hard-coded bounds passed in the attribute bnd of the variables.

remove_constraint(ind)

Deletes a constraint or a list of constraints of the problem.

Parameters: ind (int or tuple.) – The indexing of constraints works as in the function get_constraint(): if ind is an integer , the nth constraint (numbered from 0) is deleted if ind is a tuple , then the ith constraint from the kth group of constraints is deleted (starting from 0). By group of constraints, it is meant a single constraint or a list of constraints added together with the function add_list_of_constraints(). if ind is a tuple of length 1 , then the whole kth group of constraints is deleted.

Example:

>>> import picos as pic
>>> import cvxopt as cvx
>>> prob=pic.Problem()
>>> x=[prob.add_variable('x[{0}]'.format(i),2) for i in range(4)]
... [(1|x[i])<y[i] for i in range(4)], 'i', '[5]')
... [x[i]<2 for i in range(3)], 'i', '[3]')
>>> prob.constraints #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[0] 〉 < y[0] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[1] 〉 < y[1] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[2] 〉 < y[2] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #,
# (4x1)-affine constraint: y > |0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[0] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[1] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[2] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[3] < |1| #]
>>> prob.remove_constraint(1)                           #2d constraint (numbered from 0) deleted
>>> prob.constraints #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[0] 〉 < y[0] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[2] 〉 < y[2] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #,
# (4x1)-affine constraint: y > |0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[0] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[1] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[2] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[3] < |1| #]
>>> prob.remove_constraint((1,))                        #2d 'group' of constraint deleted, i.e. the single constraint y>|0|
>>> prob.constraints #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[0] 〉 < y[0] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[2] 〉 < y[2] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[0] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[1] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[2] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[3] < |1| #]
>>> prob.remove_constraint((2,))                        #3d 'group' of constraint deleted, (originally the 4th group, i.e. x[3]<|1|)
>>> prob.constraints #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[0] 〉 < y[0] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[2] 〉 < y[2] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[0] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[1] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[2] < |2.0| #]
>>> prob.remove_constraint((1,1))                       #2d constraint of the 2d group (originally the 3rd group), i.e. x[1]<|2|
>>> prob.constraints #doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
[# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[0] 〉 < y[0] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[2] 〉 < y[2] #,
# (1x1)-affine constraint: 〈 |1| | x[3] 〉 < y[3] #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[0] < |2.0| #,
# (2x1)-affine constraint: x[2] < |2.0| #]

remove_variable(name)

Removes the variable name from the problem. :param name: name of the variable to remove. :type name: str.

Warning

This method does not check if some constraint still involves the variable to be removed.

reset_cplex_instance(onlyvar=True)

reset the variables used by the solver cplex

reset_cvxopt_instance(onlyvar=True)

reset the variable cvxoptVars, used by the solver cvxopt (and smcp)

reset_glpk_instance(onlyvar=True)

reset the variables used by the solver glpk

reset_gurobi_instance(onlyvar=True)

reset the variables used by the solver gurobi

reset_mosek_instance(onlyvar=True)

reset the variables used by the solver mosek

reset_scip_instance(onlyvar=True)

reset the variables used by the solver scip

set_all_options_to_default()

set all the options to their default. The following options are available, and can be passed as pairs of the form key=value when the Problem object is created, or to the function solve() :

• General options common to all solvers:

• verbose = 1 : Verbosity level. -1 attempts to suppress all output, even errors. 0 only outputs warnings and errors. 1 generates standard informative output. 2 prints all available information for debugging purposes.
• solver = None : currently the available solvers are 'cvxopt', 'glpk', 'cplex', 'mosek', 'gurobi', 'smcp', 'zibopt'. The default None means that you let picos select a suitable solver for you.
• tol = 1e-8 : Relative gap termination tolerance for interior-point optimizers (feasibility and complementary slackness). This option is currently ignored by glpk.
• maxit = None : maximum number of iterations (for simplex or interior-point optimizers). This option is currently ignored by zibopt.
• lp_root_method = None : algorithm used to solve continuous LP problems, including the root relaxation of mixed integer problems. The default None selects automatically an algorithm. If set to psimplex (resp. dsimplex, interior), the solver will use a primal simplex (resp. dual simplex, interior-point) algorithm. This option currently works only with cplex, mosek and gurobi. With glpk it works for LPs but not for the MIP root relaxation.
• lp_node_method = None : algorithm used to solve subproblems at nodes of the branching trees of mixed integer programs. The default None selects automatically an algorithm. If set to psimplex (resp. dsimplex, interior), the solver will use a primal simplex (resp. dual simplex, interior-point) algorithm. This option currently works only with cplex, mosek and gurobi.
• timelimit = None : time limit for the solver, in seconds. The default None means no time limit. This option is currently ignored by cvxopt and smcp.
• treememory = None : size of the buffer for the branch and bound tree, in Megabytes. This option currently works only with cplex.
• gaplim = 1e-4 : For mixed integer problems, the solver returns a solution as soon as this value for the gap is reached (relative gap between the primal and the dual bound).
• noprimals = False : if True, do not copy the optimal variable values in the value attribute of the problem variables.
• noduals = False : if True, do not try to retrieve the dual variables.
• nbsol = None : maximum number of feasible solution nodes visited when solving a mixed integer problem.
• hotstart = False : if True, the MIP optimizer tries to start from the solution specified (even partly) in the value attribute of the problem variables. This option currently works only with cplex, mosek and gurobi.
• convert_quad_to_socp_if_needed = True : Do we convert the convex quadratics to second order cone constraints when the solver does not handle them directly ?
• solve_via_dual = None : If set to True, the Lagrangian Dual (computed with the function dualize() ) is passed to the solver, instead of the problem itself. In some situations this can yield an important speed-up. In particular for Mosek and SOCPs/SDPs whose form is close to the standard primal form (as in the note on dual variables of the tutorial), since the MOSEK interface is better adapted for problems given in a dual form. When this option is set to None (default), PICOS chooses automatically whether the problem itself should be passed to the solver, or rather its dual.
• pass_simple_cons_as_bound = False : If set to True, linear constraints involving a single variable are passed to the solvers as a bound on the variable. This may speed-up the solving process (?), but is not safe if you indend to remove this constraint later and re-solve the problem. This option currently works only with cplex, mosek and gurobi.
• return_constraints = False : If set to True, the default behaviour of the function add_constraint() is to return the created constraint.
• Specific options available for cvxopt/smcp:

• feastol = None : feasibility tolerance passed to cvx.solvers.options If feastol has the default value None, then the value of the option tol is used.
• abstol = None : absolute tolerance passed to cvx.solvers.options If abstol has the default value None, then the value of the option tol is used.
• reltol = None : relative tolerance passed to cvx.solvers.options If reltol has the default value None, then the value of the option tol, multiplied by 10, is used.
• Specific options available for cplex:

• cplex_params = {} : a dictionary of cplex parameters to be set before the cplex optimizer is called. For example, cplex_params={'mip.limits.cutpasses' : 5} will limit the number of cutting plane passes when solving the root node to 5.
• acceptable_gap_at_timelimit = None : If the the time limit is reached, the optimization process is aborted only if the current gap is less than this value. The default value None means that we interrupt the computation regardless of the achieved gap.
• uboundlimit = None : tells CPLEX to stop as soon as an upper bound smaller than this value is found.
• lboundlimit = None : tells CPLEX to stop as soon as a lower bound larger than this value is found.
• boundMonitor = True : tells CPLEX to store information about the evolution of the bounds during the solving process. At the end of the computation, a list of triples (time,lowerbound,upperbound) will be provided in the field bounds_monitor of the dictionary returned by solve().
• Specific options available for mosek:

• mosek_params = {} : a dictionary of mosek parameters to be set before the mosek optimizer is called. For example, mosek_params={'simplex_abs_tol_piv' : 1e-4} sets the absolute pivot tolerance of the simplex optimizer to 1e-4.

• handleBarVars = True : For semidefinite programming, Mosek handles the Linear Matrix Inequalities by using a separate class of variables, called bar variables, representing semidefinite positive matrices.

If this option is set to False, Mosek adds a new bar variable for every LMI, and let the elements of the slack variable of the LMIs match the bar variables by adding equality constraints.

If set to True (default), PICOS avoid creating useless bar variables for LMIs of the form X >> 0: in this case X will be added in mosek directly as a bar variable. This can avoid creating a lot of unnecessary variables for problems whose form is close to the canonical dual form (See the note on dual variables in the tutorial).

See also the option solve_via_dual.

• handleConeVars = True : For Second Order Cone Programming, Mosek handles the SOC inequalities by appending a standard cone. This must be done in a careful way, since a single variable is not allowed to belong to several standard cones.

If this option is set to False, Picos adds a new variable for each coordinate of a vector in a second order cone inequality, as well as an equality constraint to match the value of this coordinate with the value of the new variable.

If set to True, additional variables are added only when needed, and simple changes of variables are done in order to reduce the number of necessary additional variables. This can avoid creating a lot of unnecessary variables for problems whose form is close to the canonical dual form (See the note on dual variables in the tutorial). Consider for example the SOC inequality . Here 2 new variables and will be added, with the constraint and , and a change of variable will be done. Then a standard cone with the variables will be appended (cf. the doc of the mosek interface).

See also the option solve_via_dual.

• Specific options available for gurobi:

• gurobi_params = {} : a dictionary of gurobi parameters to be set before the gurobi optimizer is called. For example, gurobi_params={'NodeLimit' : 25} limits the number of nodes visited by the MIP optimizer to 25.
• Specific options available for scip:

• scip_params = {} : a dictionary of scip parameters to be set before the scip optimizer is called. For example, scip_params = {'lp/threads' : 4} sets the number of threads to solve the LPs at 4.
• Specific options available for sdpa:

• sdpa_executable = 'sdpa' : The sdpa executable name.
• sdpa_params = {'-pt': 0} : dictionary of extra parameters to pass to sdpa. Set ‘read_solution’: ‘filename.out’ for reading an already existing solution.
set_objective(typ, expr)

Defines the objective function of the problem.

Parameters: typ (str.) – can be either 'max' (maximization problem), 'min' (minimization problem), or 'find' (feasibility problem). expr – an Expression. The expression to be minimized or maximized. This parameter will be ignored if typ=='find'.
set_option(key, val)

Sets the option key to the value val.

Parameters: key (str.) – The key of an option (see the list of keys in the doc of set_all_options_to_default()). val – New value for the option.
set_var_value(name, value, optimalvar=False)

Sets the value attribute of the given variable.

Parameters: name (str.) – name of the variable to which the value will be given value – The value to be given. The type of value must be recognized by the function _retrieve_matrix(), so that it can be parsed into a cvxopt sparse matrix of the desired size.

Example

>>> prob=pic.Problem()
>>> prob.set_var_value('x',[3,4])  #this is in fact equivalent to x.value=[3,4]
>>> abs(x)**2
>>> print(abs(x)**2)
25.0

solve(**options)

Solves the problem.

Once the problem has been solved, the optimal variables can be obtained thanks to the property value of the class Expression. The optimal dual variables can be accessed by the property dual of the class Constraint.

Parameters: options – A list of options to update before the call to the solver. In particular, the solver can be specified here, under the form key = value. See the list of available options in the doc of set_all_options_to_default() A dictionary which contains the objective value of the problem, the time used by the solver, the status of the solver, and an object which depends on the solver and contains information about the solving process.
solver_selection()

Selects an appropriate solver for this problem and sets the option 'solver'.

status = None

status returned by the solver. The default when a new problem is created is ‘unsolved’.

to_real()

Returns an equivalent problem, where the n x n- hermitian matrices have been replaced by symmetric matrices of size 2n x 2n.

type

Type of Optimization Problem (‘LP’, ‘MIP’, ‘SOCP’, ‘QCQP’,…)

update_options(**options)

update the option dictionary, for each pair of the form key = value. For a list of available options and their default values, see the doc of set_all_options_to_default().

variables = None

dictionary of variables indexed by variable names

write_to_file(filename, writer='picos')

This function writes the problem to a file.

Parameters: filename (str.) – The name of the file where the problem will be saved. The extension of the file (if provided) indicates the format of the export: '.cbf': CBF (Conic Benchmark Format). This format is suitable for optimization problems involving second order and/or semidefinite cone constraints. This is the standard to use for conic optimization problems, cf. CBLIB and this paper from Henrik Friberg. '.lp': LP format . This format handles only linear constraints, unless the writer 'cplex' is used, and the file is saved in the extended cplex LP format '.mps': MPS format (recquires mosek, gurobi or cplex). '.opf': OPF format (recquires mosek). '.dat-s': sparse SDPA format This format is suitable to save semidefinite programs (SDP). SOC constraints are stored as semidefinite constraints with an arrow pattern. writer (str.) – The default writer is picos, which has its own LP, CBF, and sparse SDPA write functions. If cplex, mosek or gurobi is installed, the user can pass the option writer='cplex', writer='gurobi' or writer='mosek', and the write function of this solver will be used.

Warning

• In the case of a SOCP, when the selected writer is 'mosek', the written file may contain some changes of variables with respect to the original formulation when the option handleConeVars is set to True (this is the default).

If this is an issue, turn the option handleConeVars to False and reset the mosek instance by calling reset_mosek_instance(), but turning off this option may increase the number of variables and constraints.

Otherwise, the set of change of variables can be queried by self.msk_scaledcols. Each (Key,Value) pair i -> alpha of this dictionary indicates that the i th column has been rescaled by a factor alpha.

• The CBF writer tries to write symmetric variables in the section PSDVAR of the .cbf file. However, this is possible only if the constraint appears in the problem, and no other LMI involves . If these two conditions are not satisfied, then the symmetric-vectorization of is used as a (free) variable of the section VAR in the .cbf file (cf. next paragraph).

• For problems involving a symmetric matrix variable (typically, semidefinite programs), the expressions involving are stored in PICOS as a function of , the symmetric vectorized form of X (see Dattorro, ch.2.2.2.1). As a result, the symmetric matrix variables are written in form in the files created by this function. So if you use another solver to solve a problem that is described in a file created by PICOS, the optimal symmetric variables returned will also be in symmetric vectorized form.