Skip to main content
Open In ColabOpen on GitHub

How to select examples by n-gram overlap

The NGramOverlapExampleSelector selects and orders examples based on which examples are most similar to the input, according to an ngram overlap score. The ngram overlap score is a float between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive.

The selector allows for a threshold score to be set. Examples with an ngram overlap score less than or equal to the threshold are excluded. The threshold is set to -1.0, by default, so will not exclude any examples, only reorder them. Setting the threshold to 0.0 will exclude examples that have no ngram overlaps with the input.

from langchain_community.example_selectors import NGramOverlapExampleSelector
from langchain_core.prompts import FewShotPromptTemplate, PromptTemplate

example_prompt = PromptTemplate(
input_variables=["input", "output"],
template="Input: {input}\nOutput: {output}",
)

# Examples of a fictional translation task.
examples = [
{"input": "See Spot run.", "output": "Ver correr a Spot."},
{"input": "My dog barks.", "output": "Mi perro ladra."},
{"input": "Spot can run.", "output": "Spot puede correr."},
]
example_selector = NGramOverlapExampleSelector(
# The examples it has available to choose from.
examples=examples,
# The PromptTemplate being used to format the examples.
example_prompt=example_prompt,
# The threshold, at which selector stops.
# It is set to -1.0 by default.
threshold=-1.0,
# For negative threshold:
# Selector sorts examples by ngram overlap score, and excludes none.
# For threshold greater than 1.0:
# Selector excludes all examples, and returns an empty list.
# For threshold equal to 0.0:
# Selector sorts examples by ngram overlap score,
# and excludes those with no ngram overlap with input.
)
dynamic_prompt = FewShotPromptTemplate(
# We provide an ExampleSelector instead of examples.
example_selector=example_selector,
example_prompt=example_prompt,
prefix="Give the Spanish translation of every input",
suffix="Input: {sentence}\nOutput:",
input_variables=["sentence"],
)
# An example input with large ngram overlap with "Spot can run."
# and no overlap with "My dog barks."
print(dynamic_prompt.format(sentence="Spot can run fast."))
Give the Spanish translation of every input

Input: Spot can run.
Output: Spot puede correr.

Input: See Spot run.
Output: Ver correr a Spot.

Input: My dog barks.
Output: Mi perro ladra.

Input: Spot can run fast.
Output:
# You can add examples to NGramOverlapExampleSelector as well.
new_example = {"input": "Spot plays fetch.", "output": "Spot juega a buscar."}

example_selector.add_example(new_example)
print(dynamic_prompt.format(sentence="Spot can run fast."))
Give the Spanish translation of every input

Input: Spot can run.
Output: Spot puede correr.

Input: See Spot run.
Output: Ver correr a Spot.

Input: Spot plays fetch.
Output: Spot juega a buscar.

Input: My dog barks.
Output: Mi perro ladra.

Input: Spot can run fast.
Output:
# You can set a threshold at which examples are excluded.
# For example, setting threshold equal to 0.0
# excludes examples with no ngram overlaps with input.
# Since "My dog barks." has no ngram overlaps with "Spot can run fast."
# it is excluded.
example_selector.threshold = 0.0
print(dynamic_prompt.format(sentence="Spot can run fast."))
Give the Spanish translation of every input

Input: Spot can run.
Output: Spot puede correr.

Input: See Spot run.
Output: Ver correr a Spot.

Input: Spot plays fetch.
Output: Spot juega a buscar.

Input: Spot can run fast.
Output:
# Setting small nonzero threshold
example_selector.threshold = 0.09
print(dynamic_prompt.format(sentence="Spot can play fetch."))
Give the Spanish translation of every input

Input: Spot can run.
Output: Spot puede correr.

Input: Spot plays fetch.
Output: Spot juega a buscar.

Input: Spot can play fetch.
Output:
# Setting threshold greater than 1.0
example_selector.threshold = 1.0 + 1e-9
print(dynamic_prompt.format(sentence="Spot can play fetch."))
Give the Spanish translation of every input

Input: Spot can play fetch.
Output:

Was this page helpful?