Tutorial: Customization Through Callbacks

One type of customization we'd like to touch on briefly can be achieved through Gurobi callbacks. Callbacks allow you to track the progress of the optimization process. For the sake of our example, let's say you want the MIP optimizer to run for 10 seconds before quitting, but you don't want it to terminate before it finds a feasible solution. The following callback method would implement this condition:

from gurobipy import *

def mycallback(model, where):
  if where == GRB.Callback.MIP:
    time = model.cbGet(GRB.Callback.RUNTIME)
    best = model.cbGet(GRB.Callback.MIP_OBJBST)
    if time > 10 and best < GRB.INFINITY:
      model.terminate()

Once you import this function (from custom import *), you can then say m.optimize(mycallback) to obtain the desired termination behavior. Alternatively, you could define your own custom optimize method that always invokes the callback:

def myopt(model):
  model.optimize(mycallback)

This would allow you to say myopt(m).

You can pass arbitrary data into your callback through the model object. For example, if you set m._mydata = 1 before calling optimize(), you can query m._mydata inside your callback function. Note that the names of user data fields must begin with an underscore.

This callback example is included in <installdir>/examples/python/custom.py. Copy the file to your current directory, and type from custom import * to import the callback and the myopt() function.

In the interactive shell, you can type help(GRB.Callback) for more information on callbacks.

Further information

• Callback class documentation in the Gurobi Reference Manual
• How do I use callbacks to terminate the solver?
• How do I inject a solution calculated in a separate process?
• How do I set multiple termination criteria for a model?