Solving the project selection problem with a budget constraint

This research refers to a computational program for microcomputers that solves the problem of selection of investments with capital constraints, with a horizon of several time periods and with replacement or complementation relations between the projects. The available system allows solving, with high efficiency, problems as large as 200 decision variables. The problem is modeled as a 0-1 integer programming problem, which could be solved using a standard mathematical programming code. However, the large number of integer variables makes it necessary to use a heuristic to solve the problem. The resulting code runs on an IBM PC (or compatible), and can approach the optimal solution as much as the user wants, depending on the amount of time available.