I have declared “set S” and “param b {S}”. How do I write an AMPL expression for the arg min of b[i] — that is, the s in S such that b[s] equals the minimum of b[i] over al

FAQs
1

There’s no specific arg min operator in AMPL. However, proceeding directly from the definition, you can define the arg min explicitly by a set expression like

{s in S: b[s] = min {i in S} b[i]}

This expression gives a subset of S , however, containing all of the members of S that achieve the minimum. To get just one member representing the arg min, you can define this to be an ordered set,

set b_argmin ordered := {s in S: b[s] = min {i in S} b[i]};

Then first(b_argmin) is guaranteed to be one member of S that minimizes b[i] .

As an alternative, you can use AMPL’s for and if commands to write a script that loops over S to compute the arg min explicitly:

param bmin; 
param imin symbolic in S; 
let bmin := Infinity; 
for {i in S} { 
   if b[i] < bmin then { 
      let bmin := b[i]; 
      let imin := i; } }

In general this is a slower alternative than defining b_argmin as above. It admits a greater variety of generalizations in complex cases, however.