.. _responses-objective_functions-scalar_objectives:

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scalar_objectives
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Number of scalar objective functions


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**Specification**

- *Alias:* num_scalar_objectives 

- *Arguments:* 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.