The Maximize() and Minimize() functions find the factor values that optimize an expression. The expression is assumed to be a continuous function of the factor values.
result = Maximize(objectiveExpression,{list of factor names}, <<option(value))
result = Minimize(objectiveExpression,{list of factor names}, <<option(value))
objectiveExpression is the expression whose value is to be optimized, and can either be the expression itself, or the name of a global containing a stored expression.
{list of factor names} is an expression yielding a list of names involved in objectiveExpression.
{beta} // unconstrained
{beta (0,1)} // constrained between 0 and 1
{beta (.,1)} // upper limit of 1
{beta (0,.)} or {beta (0)} // lower limit of 0
<< Tolerance(.00000001) // convergence criterion
<< Max Iter( 250) // maximum number of iterations
<< Limits() //
The following example uses Minimize to find the least squares estimates of this exponential model, with data taken from the Nonlinear Example/US Population.jmp sample data table.
xx = [1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990];
yy = [3.929, 5.308, 7.239, 9.638, 12.866, 17.069, 23.191, 31.443, 39.818, 50.155, 62.947, 75.994, 91.972, 105.71, 122.775, 131.669, 151.325, 179.323, 203.211, 226.5, 248.7];
b0 = 3.9;
b1 = .022;
sseExpr = Expr(
	Sum( (yy - (b0 * Exp( b1 * (xx - 1790) ))) ^ 2 )
);
sse = Minimize( sseExpr, {b0, b1}, <<Tolerance( .00001 ) );
Show( b0, b1, sse );
b0 = 13.9991388055261;
b1 = 0.0147104409355048;
sse = 1862.14141218875;

Help created on 10/11/2018