Top ChatGPT Prompts Every Developer Should Know

Understand ChatGPT:

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that uses natural language processing to create human-like conversations. This language model can answer questions and write various types of content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code, and emails. It is an exciting tool for programmers at all levels.

OpenAI, an AI research company, created ChatGPT and launched it in November 2022. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs and researchers, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman. The company is supported by several investors, with Microsoft being the most notable.

What is prompt engineering and why is it important?

Prompt engineering makes it easy for users to get relevant results. It also helps reduce bias that may come from existing human bias in the training data of large language models. Additionally, it improves the user-AI interaction so the AI understands the user's intention even with minimal input.

When crafting a prompt:

• Be clear and concise.
• Be specific: Specify the programming language and clearly describe the functionality you need. For example, a prompt could be "Write a JavaScript function to calculate the sum of given numbers" instead of a vague “Write a function to calculate the sum."
• Include the necessary context and details, but avoid any ambiguity or unnecessary information.
• Define inputs and outputs: If the function or piece of code you need requires specific input or output formats, include this information in your prompt.

How ChatGPT Can Help Developers:

ChatGPT, an advanced language model, can assist developers in many ways during their coding journey. Let’s explore some of them.

1. Writing Code: With ChatGPT, you can generate code based on specific descriptions. For example, if you need a C# function to calculate the sum of two numbers, you can prompt ChatGPT as shown below, and it will return the appropriate code.

Prompt Example:

"Write a C# function to calculate the sum of the 2 given numbers."

2. Refactor Code: With ChatGPT's help, you can refactor the code to enhance code efficiency, reduce errors, and make it easier to modify or extend in the future.

Prompt Example:

I have a piece of code and I need you to refactor it:
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

3.Code Review & Debugging: You can use ChatGPT to review code snippets and identify potential issues or bugs.

Prompt Example:

"Here's a javascript code snippet. The function is supposed to return the maximum value from the given list, but it's not returning the expected output. Can you identify the problem?".
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

4.Adding Coding Best Practices or Principles: ChatGPT can help you rewrite code to follow style guidelines.

Prompt Example

Rewrite the code below following the Google style guidelines for JavaScript.
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

5.Explaining Code: ChatGPT can help explain how old and complex code snippets work. To get an explanation of a specific piece of code, provide the code snippet and ask for an explanation.

Prompt Example

"Could you please explain how this typescript function works?".
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

6.Optimizing Code: ChatGPT can help optimize your code to improve performance or readability, making it more efficient and easier to understand.

Prompt Example:

"Here’s a function I wrote in JavaScript that prints first n Fibonacci Numbers. Could you suggest any optimizations for better performance?"
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

7. Create Unit Tests: You can use ChatGPT to automate unit testing by writing test cases for you.

Prompt Example:

Please write unit tests for the following code.
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

8. Add code comments: ChatGPT can quickly add comments to your code if it needs explanations.

Prompt Example:

Add comments to the following code:
INSERT YOUR CODE HERE

9. Create Boilerplate Code: ChatGPT can help you generate boilerplate code.

Write a boilerplate JavaScript function that will take a variable of type User, and validate whether the user has the right permissions or not.

10. Create a Regular Expression: Regular expressions allow us to match, locate, and manage text, making it easier to manipulate data in large programs, and ChatGPT can assist in writing these RegEx.

Write a regular expression that matches:
REQUEST

These are some examples of how ChatGPT can make a developer's life easier, including learning new concepts, understanding design patterns, code refactoring, brainstorming ideas, interview preparations, and more.