A Functional Description of ANALYZE: A Computer-Assisted Analysis System for Linear Programming Models

This paper describes the functions of a system, called ANALYZE, designed to assist analysts with their use of a linear programming model. It supplements a mathematmal programming system to fullffll some of the functions of Computer-Assisted Analysis (CAA): documentation/verification, debugging, interpreting results, simplification, and sensitivity analysis. These functions are described and illustrated with the ANALYZE commands used to assist the analysis. (The language of ANALYZE is mterpretwe, similar to Its predecessor system, PERUSE.) Beginning with perspectives of the anatomy of a model, the ANALYZE aids for verification and documentation are described and applied to models used by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Then, extensions of conventional sensitivity analysis in lmear programming are described, based upon the digraph of a linear program's matrix. With the structural description that mcludes path tracing the next CAA function is model sunplfficatmn. Two approaches are described, dimensional reduction and search for embedded structures, notably netforms. Throughout the paper the ANALYZE system is illustrated and its commands, hsted in the appendix, are applmd to real cases. The ANALYZE system works with the PERUSE data structures and, like PERUSE, is written in FORTRAN (not standard). It is normally run under TSO, but one can execute batch mode.