An MPS-format file must contain a ROWS section and a COLUMNS section. It may also contain optional NAME, OBJSENSE, OBJNAME, RHS, RANGES, BOUNDS, and REFROW sections.

All MPS files must terminate with an ENDATA line.

The following restrictions apply to the ordering of sections.

  1. The ROWS section must appear before the COLUMNS and RHS section.
  2. The optional RANGES section must appear after the ROWS section.
  3. The optional BOUNDS section must appear after the COLUMNS section.
  4. The REFROW section must appear before the ROWS section.

See also MPS format data lines.