code_editing_examples.md

Code editing example

OpenAI's edits endpoint is particularly useful for editing code.

Unlike completions, edits takes two inputs: the text to edit and an instruction.

For example, if you wanted to edit a Python function, you could supply the text of the function and an instruction like "add a docstring".

Example text input to code-davinci-edit-001:

def tribonacci(n):
    if n == 0:
        return 0
    elif n == 1:
        return 1
    elif n == 2:
        return 1
    elif n == 3:
        return 2
    else:
        return tribonacci(n-1) + tribonacci(n-2) + tribonacci(n-3)

Example instruction inputs:

add a docstring

Add typing, using Python 3.9 conventions

improved the runtime

Add a test.

Translate to JavaScript (or Rust or Lisp or any language you like)

Example output after improving the runtime and translating to JavaScript:

function tribonacci(n) {
  let a = 0;
  let b = 1;
  let c = 1;
  for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    [a, b, c] = [b, c, a + b + c];
  }
  return a;
}

As you can see, code-davinci-edit-001 was able to successfully reduce the function's runtime from exponential down to linear, as well as convert from Python to JavaScript.

Experiment with code editing using code-davinci-edit-001 in the OpenAI Playground.