How to handle large number?

GAMS
1

Hi everyone,

I have a very large number in my input dataset, it’s roughly 3.6E260. As far as I understand, GAMS just ignore this huge number (that explains the strange results I got…).
I was wondering if someone knows how can I change the limit for the model so it can handle this number? Or alternatively, if there are other options to handle this situation?

Thank you,
Yehuda

2

Yehuda,

What makes you think this number is ignored? A simple example shows it is not:

scalar yehuda 'this is a pretty big number' / 3.6e260 /;
display yehuda;

I see the number displayed in the .lst file.

-Steve

3

Hi Steve,
For a long time, I was not having any result in my Excel output file, for a calculation I made with this number and I thought that this is a small malfunction but everything is okay. Lately, when I double-checked some results of my model I realized that this number is actually doesn’t process by the model. Furthermore, in the user’s guide, it says: “One should avoid creating or using numbers with absolute values larger than 1.0E20”. I guess this is not accurate since I have some numbers that are larger than this and they are processed correctly, but as far my understanding, a large number like I mentioned before is too big for the software.