Convex.jl also returns the optimal dual variables for a problem. These are stored in the dual
field associated with each constraint.
using Convex x = Variable() constraint = x >= 0 p = minimize(x, constraint) solve!(p) # Get the dual value for the constraint p.constraints[1].dual # or constraint.dual
If you're solving the same problem many times with different values of a parameter, Convex.jl can initialize many solvers with the solution to the previous problem, which sometimes speeds up the solution time. This is called a warm start.
To use this feature, pass the optional argument warmstart=true to the solve! method.
# initialize data n = 1000 y = rand(n) x = Variable(n) # first solve lambda = 100 problem = minimize(sumsquares(y - x) + lambda * sumsquares(x - 10)) @time solve!(problem) # now warmstart # if the solver takes advantage of warmstarts, # this run will be faster lambda = 105 @time solve!(problem, warmstart=true)
Convex.jl allows you to fix a variable x to a value by calling the fix! method. Fixing the variable essentially turns it into a constant. Fixed variables are sometimes also called parameters.
fix(x, v) fixes the variable x to the value v.
fix(x) fixes x to the value x.value, which might be the value obtained by solving another problem involving the variable x.
To allow the variable x to vary again, call free!(x).
Fixing and freeing variables can be particularly useful as a tool for performing alternating minimization on nonconvex problems. For example, we can find an approximate solution to a nonnegative matrix factorization problem with alternating minimization as follows. We use warmstarts to speed up the solution.
# initialize nonconvex problem n, k = 10, 1 A = rand(n, k) * rand(k, n) x = Variable(n, k) y = Variable(k, n) problem = minimize(sum_squares(A - x*y), x>=0, y>=0) # initialize value of y y.value = rand(k, n) # we'll do 10 iterations of alternating minimization for i=1:10 # first solve for x # with y fixed, the problem is convex fix!(y) solve!(problem, warmstart = i > 1 ? true : false) free!(y) # now solve for y with x fixed at the previous solution fix!(x) solve!(problem, warmstart = true) free!(x) end