Letter to the Editor—On Optimal Extracting from a Multiple File Data Storage System: An Application of Integer Programming

Abstract

This study shows how the problem of optimally selecting files for extracting from an overlapping, multiple file data storage system can be treated as an integer programming problem and solved by means of existing integer programming computer routines. It presents several heuristic file selection problems and suggests how existing integer programming routines could be used in an extracting system. The study concludes that the integer programming formulation is a feasible means of expressing the file selection problem and that existing computer programs may afford useful methods of solution. The file selection problem gives an especially simple integer programming problem; available algorithms, modified to account for this simple structure may be expected to eliminate any chance of failure in operation.