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These instances are available in a plain text file format as well as an XML format. See also :

- A zip file of all the instances.
- The file format guide and how to interpret the constraints and objectives.
- How to verify new solutions.
- An initial set of results and an integer programming model for these instances is here (solutions).
- New results are announced on the changes page.

Instance	Weeks	Employees	Shift types	Best known lower bound	Best known solution
Instance1 txt xml	2	8	1	607	607
Instance2 txt xml	2	14	2	828	828
Instance3 txt xml	2	20	3	1001	1001
Instance4 txt xml	4	10	2	1716	1716
Instance5 txt xml	4	16	2	1143	1143
Instance6 txt xml	4	18	3	1950	1950
Instance7 txt xml	4	20	3	1056	1056
Instance8 txt xml	4	30	4	1300	1300
Instance9 txt xml	4	36	4	439	439
Instance10 txt xml	4	40	5	4631	4631
Instance11 txt xml	4	50	6	3443	3443
Instance12 txt xml	4	60	10	4040	4040
Instance13 txt xml	4	120	18	1348	1348
Instance14 txt xml	6	32	4	1278	1278
Instance15 txt xml	6	45	6	3829	3829
Instance16 txt xml	8	20	3	3225	3225
Instance17 txt xml	8	32	4	5746	5746
Instance18 txt xml	12	22	3	4459	4459
Instance19 txt xml	12	40	5	3149	3149
Instance20 txt xml	26	50	6	4769	4769
Instance21 txt xml	26	100	8	21133	21133
Instance22 txt xml	52	50	10	30241	30241
Instance23 txt xml	52	100	16	16990	17428
Instance24 txt xml	52	150	32	26571	42463

References

Strandmark, P., Qu, Y. and Curtois, T. First-order linear programming in a column generation-based heuristic approach to the nurse rostering problem. Computers & Operations Research, 2020. 120, p. 104945. (pdf)
Demirović, E., Musliu, N., and Winter, F. Modeling and solving staff scheduling with partial weighted maxSAT. Annals of Operations Research, 2019. 275(1): p. 79-99.
Smet P. Constraint reformulation for nurse rostering problems, in: PATAT 2018 twelfth international conference on the practice and theory of automated timetabling, Vienna, August, 2018, p. 69-80.
Rahimian, E., Akartunalı, K., and Levine, J. A hybrid integer programming and variable neighbourhood search algorithm to solve nurse rostering problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 2017. 258(2): p. 411-423.

Other instances

Best known solutions

File	GPost.ros
Problem	GPost
Employees	8
Schedule length	4 weeks
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.

5	html	xml
7	html	xml
8	html	xml

Other versions

GPost-B.ros Same as GPost.ros but without the requests on the first two days.

3	html	xml
5	html	xml

File	SINTEF.ros
Problem	SINTEF
Employees	24
Schedule length	3 weeks
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.

0	html	xml
1	html	xml
2	html	xml

File	ORTEC01.ros
Problem	ORTEC
Employees	16
Shift types	4
Period	31 days
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[BUR06, BUR07, BUR07b, BUR07c, FIJ06]

270	html	xml
280	html	xml
285	html	xml
290	html	xml

Other versions

ORTEC02.ros Identical to ORTEC01 except employee B has five "Vacation" shifts in the first full week.

270	html	xml
290	html	xml

File	QMC-1.ros
Problem	QMC
Employees	19
Shift types	3
Period	28 days
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.

13	html	xml
14	html	xml
15	html	xml
16	html	xml

Other versions

QMC-2.ros An alternative formulation with a couple of different constraints and in which cover may deviate from a preferred level.

29	html	xml
30	html	xml
31	html	xml

File	Ikegami-2Shift-DATA1.ros
Problem	Ikegami
Employees	28
Shift types	2
Period	30 days
Cover type	Cover is per shift and by skill level.
References	[IKE03]

html

xml

File	Ikegami-3Shift-DATA1.ros
Problem	Ikegami
Employees	25
Shift types	3
Period	30 days
Cover type	Cover is per shift and by skill level.
References	[IKE03]

2	html	xml
5	html	xml
6	html	xml

Other versions

Ikegami-3Shift-DATA1.1.ros Some extra personal requests.

3	html	xml
9	html	xml
13	html	xml

Ikegami-3Shift-DATA1.2.ros More requests.

3	html	xml
11	html	xml
12	html	xml

File	Millar-2Shift-DATA1.ros
Problem	Millar
Employees	8
Shift types	2
Period	14 days
Cover type	Cover is per shift. Over and under coverage is not allowed.
References	[IKE03, MIL98]

0	html	xml
0	html	xml

Other versions

Millar-2Shift-DATA1.1.ros A simpler version with less constraints.

html

xml

File	BCV-3.46.2.ros
Problem	ANROM
Employees	46
Shift types	3
Period	26 days
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[BRU07, BRU09, BUR07b, BUR07c]

894	html	xml
895	html	xml
896	html	xml

File	BCV-4.13.1.ros
Problem	ANROM
Employees	13
Shift types	4
Period	29 days
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[BRU07, BRU09, BUR07b, BUR07c]

html

xml

File	Azaiez.ros
Problem	Azaiez
Employees	13
Shift types	2
Period	28 days
Cover type	Cover is per shift and by skill level.
References	[AZA05]

html

xml

File	Valouxis-1.ros
Problem	Valouxis
Employees	16
Schedule length	28 days
Shift types	3
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[VAL00]

20	html	xml
40	html	xml
60	html	xml
120	html	xml

File	HED01.ros
Problem	HED01
Employees	20
Schedule length	31 days
Shift types	5
Cover type	Cover is per shift and includes skills.
Comments	(Uses the Conditional constraint).
References	[PUE09]

136	html	xml
138	html	xml
140	html	xml

Other versions

HED01b.ros A modified version used in SOL13.

129

html

xml

File	BCDT-Sep.ros
Problem	BCDT
Employees	20
Schedule length	30 days
Shift types	4
Cover type	Cover is per shift.
References	[BEL04]

100	html	xml
140	html	xml
160	html	xml

File	WHPP.ros
Problem	WHPP
Employees	30
Schedule length	2 weeks
Shift types	3
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[WEI95]

html

xml

File	LLR.ros
Problem	LLR
Employees	27
Schedule length	7 days
Shift types	3
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[LI03]

301	html	xml
366	html	xml

File	Musa.ros
Problem	Musa
Comments	This instance is taken from a fairly early publication on nurse rostering. A UNIVAC 1100 was used to solve it in 1982!
Employees	11
Schedule length	14 days
Shift types	1
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift, minimum and preferred levels are used.
References	[MUS84]

175	html	xml
199	html	xml

File	Ozkarahan.ros
Problem	Ozkarahan
Employees	14
Schedule length	7 days
Shift types	2
Cover type	Cover is specified per shift.
References	[OZK89]

html

xml

File	MER.ros
Problem	Montreal
Employees	54
Shift types	12
Period	6 weeks
Cover type	Cover is per time period of the day.

7081	html	xml
7213	html	xml
7248	html	xml

File	CHILD.ros
Problem	Montreal
Employees	41
Shift types	5
Period	6 weeks
Cover type	Cover is per time period of the day.

149	html	xml
154	html	xml
155	html	xml

File	ERRVH.ros
Problem	Montreal
Employees	51
Shift types	8
Period	6 weeks
Cover type	Cover is per time period of the day.

2001	html	xml
2021	html	xml
2080	html	xml

File	ERMGH.ros
Problem	Montreal
Employees	41
Shift types	4
Period	6 weeks
Cover type	Cover is per time period of the day.

779

html

xml

(bold denotes proven optimal solution)

References

Asta, S., Özcan, E., and Curtois, T. A tensor based hyper-heuristic for nurse rostering. Knowledge-based systems, 2016. 98: p. 185-199.
Burke E.K. and T. Curtois. New Approaches to Nurse Rostering Benchmark Instances. European Journal of Operational Research, 2014. 237(1): p. 71-81. pdf.
Solos, Ioannis P., Ioannis X. Tassopoulos and Grigorios N. Beligiannis. A Generic Two-Phase Stochastic Variable Neighborhood Approach for Effectively Solving the Nurse Rostering Problem. Algorithms, 2013. 6: p. 278-308.