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I've set up and successfully executed an evolutionary optimization in Excel, and now have a need to convert the problem to Python. differential_evolution() in the optimize package would seem to get me there, but doesn't appear to allow for the setting of a constraint such as x1 < x2 (where x1 and x2 are elements of the decision variable vector).

Any suggestions?

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you detail your evolutionary optimization ? $\endgroup$
    – Kuifje
    Feb 1, 2021 at 15:45

1 Answer 1

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You could apply the following trick inside your objective function:

x1 = min(x[1],x[2])
x2 = max(x[1],x[2])

Now x1 <= x2 automatically holds and you don't need the constraint. (Assuming you can live with <= instead of <).

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks much, Erwin! Follow-up question: do I only want this adjustment to hold within the function, or do I want to ensure the current decision vector maintains this "correction" in between objective function calls? $\endgroup$
    – Zain Khandwala
    Feb 2, 2021 at 2:59
  • $\begingroup$ You can just do it inside the evaluation function. You also may need to repeat it when reporting the solution to the user. $\endgroup$
    – Erwin Kalvelagen
    Feb 2, 2021 at 7:20
  • $\begingroup$ Makes sense. Really clever solution; being relatively new to the study of optimization, I likely wouldn't have gotten there myself anytime soon! $\endgroup$
    – Zain Khandwala
    Feb 2, 2021 at 18:27

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