Model if-else statement

Question

I need to build a if-else constraint for this statement, where $x_P$ and $x_I$ are decision variables, and $C$ is a constant:

if $x_P \ge C$ then $x_I = x_P - C$ else $x_I = 0$.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You want to enforce $$x_I=\max(x_P-C,0).$$ See https://math.stackexchange.com/a/4086955/683666, where the various big-M values are specified explicitly.

More generally, see Linearizing a Max Function in the constraint - not working to linearize the max of $n$ linear functions.

Answer 2

You can model it by adding a binary variable $b$ and the following four constraints. $$ \begin{align} x_I &\geq x_P - C & x_I &\geq 0\\ x_I &\leq x_P - C + Mb & x_I &\leq M(1-b) \end{align} $$ where $M$ is a big constant.

Note that if $x_P > C$, $b$ can't be $1$ as otherwise $0\geq x_I > 0$, which would lead to infeasibility. Thus $b=0$ and the left two inequalities force $x_I = x_P-C$.

On the other hand if $x_P < C$, $b$ can't be $0$ as otherwise $0>x_I>0$ by the left side. Thus $b=1$ and the right to constraints give $x_I=0$.

For $x_P=C$ it doesn't matter.

I hope this helps. ;)

Answer 3

Assuming $x_p$ is a continuous variable, you could use the following big-M inequalities: \begin{align} C - M_2(1- y) &\le x_p \le C-1 + M_1 y \\ x_p - C - M_4(1-y) &\le x_I \le x_p - C + M_3(1-y) \\ 0 & \le x_I \le M_5y \\ y &\in \{0,1\} \end{align}

So if $y=0$, $x_P \le C-1$, or by contrapositive, if $x_P \ge C$, $y=1$.

And if $y=1$, then $x_P -C \le x_I\le x_P -C$, and if $y=0$, then $0 \le x_I\le 0$.