The meaning of initial value in linear programming

Question

I am new to LPP. I would like to know what is meant by setting an initial value(IV) to a variable. For example I was solving a problem where objective function(OF) is non-negative. When I give some IV to a particular variable the OF is coming out to be desired. I request anyone to kindly answer.

Answer 1

Initial values for variables are usually guesses for the variable values that you pass on to a solver. For instance, some solvers require you to provide a feasible solution as input. For an LP, an initial value might be an initial basic feasible solution, something that any simplex based algorithm will compute before starting the iterative phase.