Streamline Your Documentation with GPT-3

Generating Python docstrings using artificial intelligence

Image generated using DALL-E with the prompt: “A robot inspecting code at a computer terminal. Cyberpunk style, realistic.”

GPT-3, the latest language model developed by OpenAI, has the ability to generate human-like text, making it a powerful tool for a variety of natural language processing tasks.

The model was also trained on programming languages. One use case for this is the generation of docstrings for Python functions.

What are docstrings?

A docstring is a string that appears as the first statement in a Python function. It provides a brief description of the function and its inputs and outputs, making it easier for other developers to understand and use the code. Writing clear and informative docstrings can be time-consuming and tedious, especially for large projects with many functions.

# A docstring example
def square(n):
    """Takes in a number n and returns the square of n"""
    return n**2

GPT-3 can be used to generate docstrings by providing it with the source code of the Python function inside of a helpful prompt.

Example: Calculating the average value of a list of numbers

Suppose you wrote a function for calculating the average value of a list of numbers…