I have 800 names, each with a unique cost and value. I need to pick 20 individuals out of the 800, with a total cost of under $60. Is there a program I can use to optimize a formula to find the best combination of choices? I'm not familiar with much math software or coding or anything, I'm hoping for something fairly simple if it exists. I have an excel sheet with the list of names and their costs and values. Thanks.
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1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem – Dan Uznanski Aug 18 '17 at 01:44
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No. You might as well take the top entries ranked by ratio of value to cost, until you run out of money to spend. If you have any money left, skip down the list to find a name you can still afford. – hardmath Aug 18 '17 at 01:46
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In excel you can set up a pivot table which may allow you do some of what you want to do for free. – James Arathoon Aug 18 '17 at 01:51
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So with excel solver plus Opensolver I was able to make it work. Opensolver is a free, open source solver that uses excel solver but doesn't limit the number of variables you can use. It took some extra columns to be added, but it worked perfectly. – Gavin Bock Aug 22 '17 at 17:36