| Paradigm | Constraint programming /Logic Programming |
|---|---|
| Developer | Monash University |
| First appeared | May 2, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-05-02) |
| Stable release | 2.8.7 / October 2, 2024; 5 months ago (2024-10-02) |
| Implementation language | C++ |
| OS | Linux,MacOS, andWindows |
| License | MPLv2 |
| Filename extensions | .mzn, .dzn, .fzn |
| Website | www |
| Influenced by | |
| Zinc | |
MiniZinc[1] is aconstraint modelling language (oralgebraic modeling language) to describe and solve high-complexity problems using a variety of well-known solving paradigms for combinatorial problems includingconstraint programming,integer programming,SAT, andSMT.
Following theconstraint programming paradigm, in MiniZinc a problem is specified in terms of known values (parameters), unknown values (decision variables), and the relationship (constraints) between these values. MiniZinc promotes the use ofglobal constraints to model well-known structures in problems. These global constraints improve the clarity of the model and allow solvers to use the most effective method to exploit the structure. A MiniZinc problem instance is translated (orflattened) to a level at which it only supports constraints that are supported by the target solver and then given to the solver using its preferred format. Currently MiniZinc can communicate with solvers using its own formatFlatZinc or.nl files.
A big advantage of MiniZinc is the possibility to use different solvers, and even different solvers, from the same MiniZinc instance. MiniZinc supports many solvers, bothopen source andcommercial software, including CBC,[2] Choco,[3] Chuffed,HiGHS,Gurobi,IPOPT, andOR-Tools.
MiniZinc is interoperable with other languages such asR[4] andPython.[5]
The following MiniZinc model can be used to solve the famousn-queens puzzle:
include "all_different.mzn";% Include all_different globalint: n = 8;% The number of queens. (parameter)array [1..n] of var 1..n: q;% The height of the queens on the board. (decision variable)% No queen can be in a position where it can capture another queen. (constraints)constraint all_different(q);constraint all_different(i in 1..n)(q[i] + i);constraint all_different(i in 1..n)(q[i] - i);