Originally posted by: kashifjadoon

Can anybody help me with the following problem:

I have a matrix X that contains 24 rows and 5 columns. The first column contains time with the respective rows in the format 1:00 till 24:00. For each time there are four values associated with that particular hour. The last column contains 0:

Time          column 1         column  2       column 3     column 4

01:00           1000                 1500                800                0

02:00             300                   100                 200                0

03:00             600                   500               1500               0

    .                    .                          .                   .                       0

   .                     .                          .                   .                      0

   .                     .                          .                   .                      0

24:00            700                  1000               600                0

From columns 2,3,4 and 5 Six consecutive values  can be selected, example from time 01:00 to 06:00 say column 2 then time 07:00 to 12:00 say column 1, then time 13:00 to 18:00 say column 1 and from 19:00 to 24:00 say column 1.

I want to find the overall minimum values for 24 hours with the constraint that six consecutive values from each four columns and no column is selected twice or thrice..

Can somebody help me in this regard.

I will be very thankful if someone can provide me the mathematical equation.

This is not really a CPLEX question; it's a general integer programming question. As such, you might want to ask on a general forum (for instance, OR-Exchange, or perhaps the mathematical programming - general forum here (use the bread crumbs at the top to back up one level, and you will find it).

Originally posted by: kashifjadoon

Dear Paul, Thanks for your reply. But don't you think it is an optimization problem that can be solved by CPLEX? 

If it can be modeled as a MIP (and I believe it can), then yes, CPLEX should be able to solve it. For that matter, I think it can be modeled as a constraint satisfaction problem, in which case CPOptimizer can solve it. Might point was that your question was how to write the model (which would be the same regardless of which MIP solver you use), not something specific about CPLEX.

Originally posted by: kashifjadoon

Dear Paul, Thanks for your time. Can you provide me the code for my problem based on constraint satisfaction problem?

Sorry, no, too busy.