9 Prompt Engineering

 

This Chapter Covers

  • Mastering basic and advanced prompt types for different programming scenarios
  • Crafting effective prompts using context, clear instructions, and examples
  • Using iterative approaches like Chain of Thought and Recursive Prompting
  • Implementing context manipulation and instruction refinement for code generation
  • Applying specialized techniques to control output format for technical documentation

Prompt engineering is now a key skill for developers using generative AI tools of any type. It helps you communicate better with these powerful assistants. Instead of getting generic responses, strong prompts can greatly enhance the quality, accuracy, and usefulness of AI-generated code and documents. We will look at practical techniques. These techniques will help you change vague requests into clear instructions, and useful responses. This way, you can maximize AI's capabilities while keeping control over the output. You’ll turn these tools into dependable partners in your development process.

Some parts of prompt engineering may seem natural—like how we learned to improve our search engine questions over time. However, learning the details of this skill can make a big difference in the results you get from chat models and LLM-based programming tools. Let’s explore how to create better prompts to get the best results.

Let’s explore how to craft better prompts to save time and be more productive.

9.1 Understanding Prompt Engineering

9.1.1 Why Prompt Engineering Matters for Developers

9.2 Understanding the Anatomy of a Prompt

9.3 Crafting the Ultimate Prompt

9.3.1 Prompt Engineering Principles

9.4 Fundamental Prompt types

9.4.1 Zero-Shot Prompting

9.4.2 Few-Shot Prompting

9.4.3 Open Ended Prompts

9.4.4 Constrained Prompts

9.4.5 Leveraging Iterative Prompts

9.4.6 Structured Prompts

9.5 Advanced Prompt Types

9.5.1 Chain of Thought Prompting

9.5.2 Recursive Prompting

9.5.3 Context Manipulation

9.5.4 Instruction Refinement

9.5.5 Output Control

9.5.6 Wrap up

9.6 Prompt techniques for programmers

9.7 Summary