Alternatively users may define their own format or choose a CSV or “spreadsheet-style” format where all the elements in a row are output to a single record with individual elements separated by commas; see 10.5.5. This option is provided primarily for users who wish to dump a SATURN matrix into, e.g., EXCEL. Note however that a spreadsheet may be “clever enough” to read alternative SATURN outputs and that, if you do try to use a spreadsheet, there may be limits to the maximum number of columns which may be input, in which case you may need to work with a “strip” of columns as described next.
Subsets of the matrix are selected as a “rectangle” within the full matrix defined by upper and lower row and column numbers. You may, for example, choose to output all rows but only a “strip” of columns such that the width of each record per row does not get too long for other packages to handle. In such cases it might be preferable to dump, say, a 200 x 200 matrix as 10 200 x 20 strips, each as separate files. (Although clearly it is much more convenient to deal with one rather than 10 files, so only use this as a last resort.)
Note that the number of decimal places used in CSV outputs may be an issue for both numerical precision and record lengths; see 10.15.2 below. More precisely, the maximum record length allowed is 16384 characters. If the required length exceeds this the output record is truncated and produces a Non-fatal Error message in the .LP file which may escape your notice