Abstract: A system and method for representing and solving problems allows a user to enter objects and attributes, and to form a table of at least two dimensions having object-attribute pairs. An object hierarchy is then implemented using the entered objects. A score is maintained reflecting how closely the constraints of a particular problem are to being satisfied and the degree of progress in the direction of stated objectives of the problem.

Abstract: A system and method for representing and solving problems which allows a user to enter objects and attributes, and to form a table of at least two dimensions having object-attributes pairs. An object hierarchy is then implemented using the entered objects. The system allows the user to enter constructs to represent relationships among the object-attribute pairs, and also to enter objectives and constraints for the problem. The system allows the user to solve the problem manually or automatically by the system. A score is maintained reflecting how closely the constraints of a problem are to being satisfied and the degree of progress in the direction of the stated objectives of the problem. The system allows representation of hybrid numerical and symbolic problems, and provides solutions to linear or non-linear, discrete or continuous, and feasible or non-feasible constraint satisfaction and optimization problems.