 Simplex tableau

A simplex tableau records the canonical constraint equations for a simplex basis and the canonical objective equation. For maximization use $z+{\sum }_j{\rho }_j{x}_j=z_0$, so a negative nonbasic objective-row coefficient is an improving direction. Constraint rows have an identity matrix in the basic columns. A simplex method pivot divides the leaving row by the pivot coefficient and eliminates the entering column from the other rows, including the objective row. The simplex ratio test chooses the largest feasible step. When all basic values and all ${\rho }_j$ are nonnegative, the objective equation directly proves $z\le z_0$ for every nonnegative feasible vector.