Open source operations research tools developed at Google.

Welcome to the or-tools library main documentation hub

This is work in progress. Pages will be modified, moved or even removed.

Please, think twice before printing. Be green, read on the screen! (Don't do like those guys!)

We are working hard to provide useful documentation. The documentation is distributed in several documents:

the Getting started page: explains how to download and install the library.
the wiki: contains nice examples. It will gradually be replaced by the user's manual.
the user's manual: a user's guide that explains the Constraint Programming part of the library.
the tutorial examples: all the complete examples presented in the user's manual.
the reference manual: the documentation generated by doxygen.
the presentation slides: intended for teaching sessions.
the lab sessions: 2x50 minutes modules.
the F.A.Q.: frequently asked questions.

You can find more details about these documents in the foreword of the manual.

For suggestions, remarks, corrections about the documentation, please contact Thank you very much.

The or-tools documentation is covered by the Apache License 2.0.

What's new?

Here is a little summary:

v.0.1.5: (2012-04-30 12:46:04)
------------------------------
* Major changes in the scripts to generate the doc:
  - the scripts have been completely rewritten and the directories
    completely rearranged.
* Minor enhancements to the manual:
  - html version: several graphic enhancements.
  - preface: comments from Hakan (Thanks again and again! ;-) )
  - chap2:
    + table with cryptarithmetic puzzle improved in both version.
    + figures "at a glance" done anew.
    + comments from Hakan.
* FAQ:
  - several graphic enhancements.
* Tutorials:
  - few corrections in the C++ code.
* Lab sessions:
  - chap2: questions posted.

This is the list of changes.

The User's Manual

The epub version is still experimental. We recommend calibre to view the epub version. With this version, you should be able to convert the manual to the right format for your preferred handheld device.

The manual

Progress at a glance: Manual - Documentation generation
Online version
A4 pdf version
Letter pdf version
epub version (experimental)

Progress at a glance:

Manual

Part I: Basics
Foreword	95%
Chap1: Introduction	5%
Chap2: First steps with or-tools	90%
Chap3: Using objectives	65%
Chap4: Search primitives	10%
Part II: Customization
Chap5: Large Neighbourhood Search	0%
Chap6: Local Search operators	0%
Chap7: Custom constraints	0%
Part III: Routing
Chap8: TSP with constraints	0%
Chap9: VRP with constraints	0%
Part IV: Technicalities
Chap10: Utilities	2%
Chap11: Modeling tricks	0%
Appendices
Index	5%
Glossary	0%

Documentation generation

Templates
Manual	83%
FAQ	91%
Documentation hub	75%
Lab sessions	70%
Slides	78%
Tutorials	90%
Scripts
Manual	85%
FAQ	100%
Documentation hub	100%
Lab sessions	20%
Slides	65%
Tutorials	90%
Global automation
Installation	0%
Global scripts	30%
Testing	40%
Miscellaneous
Doc on doc	60%
collaborative working	85%
Directory structure	100%

The tutorial examples

You can download all the code at once or pick a single file in the list below. All files are encoded in UTF-8 and we use LF (Unix) newlines (the code is cross-platform though).

The code is not well documented inside the source files as we explain it in great details in the user's manual. Some files don't have corresponding files in some languages as the features implemented just don't have an equivalent in that languages (for instance, the Google gflags library is missing in Java and C#).

The presentation slides

These presentation slides are intended for a 50 minutes session.

Slides

chap2:: Slides | Handouts

The lab sessions

These lab sessions are intended for a 2x50 minutes session with a computer.

Labs

chap2:: lab_chap2_A4.pdf | lab_chap2_USLetter.pdf