Formatting models - my recommendations

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Users have many options on how they could present a GAMS model. Over more than 15 years of GAMS experience including the relative frequently event where I need to work with models that others have constructed I have arrived at a number of practices I try to follow.

In general I feel that it is in a modelers hands as to how much self-documentation a piece of GAMS code contains. I do feel there are purposeful actions that can improve documentation and will explain a number of practices that could be followed here. The extent to which such practices are followed often determines how easy it is to reuse or repair a model at a later time or how easily a colleague (or in my case a consultant) can work with that code.

The main categories of actions that are possible are

•	Use longer names and descriptions

•	Include comments on procedures and nature and sources of data

•	Include as much raw data as possible as opposed to externally calculated data

•	Don't use an * as a set specification for input data

•	Use sets to aid in readability

•	Format files to improve model readability

•	Use some other possible conventions

Below I cover each of these.