Dakota Reference Manual: scalar_objectives

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scalar_objectives

Number of scalar objective functions

## Specification

Alias: num_scalar_objectives

Argument(s): INTEGER

## Description

This keyword describes the number of scalar objective functions. It is meant to be used in conjunction with `field_objectives`, which describes the number of field objectives functions. The total number of objective functions, both scalar and field, is given by `objective_functions`. If only scalar objective functions are specified, it is not necessary to specify the number of scalar terms explicitly: one can simply say `objective_functions` = 5 and get 5 scalar objectives. However, if there are three scalar objectives and 2 field objectives, then `objective_functions` = 5 but `scalar_objectives` = 3 and `field_objectives` = 2.

Objective functions are responses that are used with optimization methods in Dakota. Currently, each term in a field objective is added to the total objective function presented to the optimizer. For example, if you have one field objective with 100 terms (e.g. a time-temperature trace with 100 time points and 100 corresponding temperature points), the 100 temperature values will be added to create the overall objective.

## See Also

These keywords may also be of interest:

- field_objectives