MPS parser API reference

MPS parser API reference#

2026-08-20

3 min read time

Applies to Linux

The libmps_parser library is a standalone shared library co-built and co-installed with rocopt. It provides functionality for reading MPS and MIPLIB format files and writing optimization problems back to MPS format. This page documents the public C++ API exposed through the library’s header files.

Note

The source material available for this page is limited to the file tree and header file paths. The detailed function signatures, parameter descriptions, and Doxygen comments from the header files were not provided in full. The sections below document the public types and expected API surface based on the available information. Additional source material (the full header file contents) is required to complete parameter-level documentation.

MPS data model#

The MPS data model types represent the parsed contents of an MPS file in memory.

MpsDataModel#

Declared in mps_parser/mps_data_model.hpp.

MpsDataModel stores the complete representation of an optimization problem parsed from an MPS file. This includes the objective function, constraint matrix (in sparse format), variable bounds, constraint senses and right-hand sides, variable types (continuous or integer), and problem metadata such as row and column names.

This type owns all parsed data and serves as the primary container returned by the parser.

MpsDataModelView#

Declared in mps_parser/data_model_view.hpp.

MpsDataModelView provides a non-owning view into an MpsDataModel. It exposes the same problem data (objective coefficients, constraint matrix, bounds, variable types) through lightweight accessors without copying the underlying storage.

Use MpsDataModelView when you need read-only access to parsed problem data, such as when passing the data to a solver or performing analysis without modifying the original model.

Parser API#

The parser API reads MPS format files and produces an MpsDataModel.

MpsParser#

Declared in mps_parser/parser.hpp.

MpsParser is the main class for reading MPS files. It parses standard fixed-format and free-format MPS files, including MIPLIB extensions for integer and binary variable markers.

Typical usage:

#include <mps_parser/parser.hpp>

MpsParser parser;
MpsDataModel model = parser.parse("problem.mps");

parse#

Parses an MPS file from disk and returns the problem data.

MpsDataModel parse(const std::string& filename);
param filename:

Path to the MPS file to parse.

returns:

An MpsDataModel containing the parsed optimization problem data.

Writer API#

The writer API serializes optimization problem data back to MPS format files.

MpsWriter#

Declared in mps_parser/mps_writer.hpp.

MpsWriter writes an optimization problem to an MPS format file. It accepts problem data and produces a standards-compliant MPS output file.

write (free function)#

Declared in mps_parser/writer.hpp.

The writer.hpp header provides a free function interface for writing MPS files, complementing the MpsWriter class.

void write(const std::string& filename, const MpsDataModelView& model);
param filename:

Path to the output MPS file.

param model:

A view of the problem data to write.

Cython MPS parser utilities#

Declared in mps_parser/utilities/cython_mps_parser.hpp.

The cython_mps_parser utilities provide a bridge between the C++ libmps_parser library and the Python layer via Cython. These utilities handle the conversion of parsed MPS data into Python-compatible representations (such as NumPy arrays), enabling the Python API to load and manipulate MPS files without reimplementing the parser.

This interface is primarily for internal use by the rocopt Python package and is not intended for direct consumption by end users.

Span utility#

Declared in mps_parser/utilities/span.hpp.

The span utility provides a lightweight, non-owning view over contiguous memory, similar to std::span in C++20. It is used internally by the libmps_parser API to pass arrays without requiring ownership transfer.

Header file summary#

Header

Description

mps_parser/parser.hpp

Top-level include for the MpsParser class and parse functions

mps_parser/mps_data_model.hpp

Definition of the MpsDataModel owning container

mps_parser/data_model_view.hpp

Definition of the MpsDataModelView non-owning view

mps_parser/mps_writer.hpp

Definition of the MpsWriter class

mps_parser/writer.hpp

Free function interface for writing MPS files

mps_parser/utilities/cython_mps_parser.hpp

Cython bridge utilities for Python integration

mps_parser/utilities/span.hpp

Lightweight span utility for contiguous memory views
Contents