TSP in Spreadsheets - a Short Guided Tour

Rasmus Rasmussen ()
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Rasmus Rasmussen: Molde University College

International Review of Economic Education, 2011, vol. 10, issue 1, 94-116

Abstract: The travelling salesman problem (TSP) is a well-known business problem, and variants like the maximum benefit TSP or the price collecting TSP may have numerous economic applications. We are looking at several different variants of TSP; all solved in spreadsheets, not using tailored solvers for TSP. As these problems are NP hard, solving those using standard LP/MIP solvers has been regarded feasible only for very small sized problems. However, a careful consideration of the spreadsheet layout may facilitate efficient software utilisation. For real world problems this can have considerable effects, and with the recent advancements in solver engines, problems previously regarded as big are now easily solvable in spreadsheets. This paper shows you how; and how the flexibility of spreadsheets makes it a convenient tool solving many variants of TSP, where tailored solvers simply would not fit.

Date: 2011
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