Linear Program Construction Using Metamodeling

Abstract

One of the most significant trends in data warehousing today is the integration of Metadata into data warehousing tools. A data warehouse is an area which exists on computer systems that is used for holding all of the data that an organization might possess. Metadata is 'data about data,' a dictionary and summary of data, that is held in a system catalog that is contained in a data warehouse. The purpose of this dissertation is four-fold: to show that by examining a database's system catalog, information can be extracted from it that can be used to develop a structure for building operations research applications. To show that a database's system catalog can be modified to hold the structure and the definition of a linear programming model. To show that a data table containing the linear programming model constraints can be automatically constructed based on the contents of the modified system catalog. And finally, to show that the modified system catalog can be used to guide a user in developing objective functions based on a given set of model constraints. Thus, the main contribution of the work is that it furthers the hybrid area of information technology/mathematical programming by exploiting metadata, as opposed to raw data, that is held in a data warehouse.