Intro
ChatGPT is revolutionizing the way software developers work, and if you haven’t jumped on board yet, you’re missing out on a competitive edge. In today’s video, we’ll be giving you a grand tour to ChatGPT, demonstrating how it can supercharge your daily tasks and elevate your efficiency. Don’t get left behind—discover how to harness the power of ChatGPT and stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving world of software development.
Get Help
One of the most common ways software developers use ChatGPT is to get help understanding confusing code. ChatGPT knows a lot about programming languages and can explain how different parts of code work in a simple way. For example, imagine we find this Python code that uses some advanced features like list comprehensions and lambda functions: If we don’t know what’s going on or find the code hard to read, we can ask ChatGPT to explain it. With ChatGPT’s help, we can better understand the code we’re working with and feel more confident when dealing with complex code.
Find Errors
Another great way to use ChatGPT is for finding errors and reviewing code. ChatGPT can help us spot mistakes in our code and suggest improvements. When we’re working on a project, it’s common to find that something isn’t working as expected. ChatGPT can look at our code and point out any errors or areas that might need fixing. It can also offer suggestions on how to make our code better. Let’s consider an example in C. We’re trying to implement a function that reverses a null-terminated string in place. Here’s the problematic code: We can ask ChatGPT to help us identify and fix the issue with this code. It tells us that there’s an off-by-one error in the reverse_string function when swapping characters. It even generates the correct code for us! Another useful way to use ChatGPT is to translate code from one programming language to another.
Translate
This can be really helpful if we get a solution in one language, but our project is in a different language. ChatGPT knows many programming languages, so it can help us make the switch. For example, let’s say we get some Python code that fixes a security issue, but our project is in Rust. We need to change the Python code into Rust, and ChatGPT can help us do that. Here’s an example in Python: We can ask ChatGPT to help us rewrite this code in Rust. The AI might give us this Rust version: With ChatGPT’s help, we can change code from one language to another easily. This saves us time, helps avoid mistakes when doing it by hand, and teaches us more about different programming languages.
Learn a new language
Another great way to use ChatGPT is to rely on it as we learn a new programming language. A perfect personal example is when we had to complete a project in Rust, which was new to us. We needed to read an object from a Google Cloud Storage bucket in chunks to make it more efficient. So, we asked ChatGPT how to do that. ChatGPT can provide us with guidance, examples, and even code snippets to help us get started with our task. By asking specific questions or for examples, we can learn how to use new libraries, functions, or language features that we’re unfamiliar with. For instance, in this case, ChatGPT might give us an example of how to read an object from a GCS bucket in chunks using Rust. This would include recommendations for libraries and example code that demonstrates how to achieve our goal. By following the guidance provided by ChatGPT, we can quickly gain a better understanding of Rust and complete our project efficiently. By leaning on ChatGPT when learning a new programming language, we can save time and reduce the learning curve, making it easier to adapt to new languages and become proficient in them.
Write unit tests
Another great way we can use ChatGPT is to write unit tests for our code. Unit tests are important because they help us make sure our code is working correctly and that changes we make don’t break existing functionality. Writing good unit tests can be challenging, and sometimes tedious, but ChatGPT can make it easier for us. Let’s consider a real-world example where we have a TypeScript function that takes a string input and sanitizes it for use in HTML by escaping special characters. Here’s the function: We can ask ChatGPT to help us come up with different test cases to validate the correctness of the sanitizeHtml function. ChatGPT might suggest a few good test cases: And even write the test cases for us: With ChatGPT’s help, we can create comprehensive unit tests for real-world production code, ensuring our code is working correctly and maintaining a high level of software quality.
Modify existing code
Another great way to use ChatGPT is to modify existing code to add more functionality. With ChatGPT’s understanding of programming languages and software engineering concepts, it can help us enhance our code by suggesting changes or providing new code snippets. Let’s consider a real-world example where we have a TypeScript function that filters out items from an array based on a provided predicate function. Here’s the original function: Suppose we want to modify this function to include an additional feature: an optional parameter that allows us to limit the number of items returned after filtering. We can ask ChatGPT for help in making this change. ChatGPT might suggest adding an optional limit parameter and updating the loop condition to stop once the limit is reached. Here’s the modified function: By using ChatGPT to modify our code and add more functionality, we can save time, ensure that our changes are implemented correctly, and learn new techniques for enhancing our code.
Write documentation and comments
Another way we can use ChatGPT is to write documentation and comments for our code. Well-written documentation and comments are crucial for maintaining the readability and maintainability of our codebase. ChatGPT can help us write clear, concise, and informative comments and documentation, even for complex real-world code. Let’s consider a real-world example where we have a TypeScript function that searches for a specified pattern in a given text and returns the indices of all occurrences. Here’s the function: We can ask ChatGPT to help us write comments and documentation for this function, explaining its purpose, parameters, and return value. Here’s what ChatGPT might suggest: By using ChatGPT to write documentation and comments, we can ensure that our code is easy to understand and maintain, making it more accessible to other developers.
A word of caution
Here’s a word of caution: It’s important to remember that ChatGPT has its limitations and shouldn’t be relied on blindly. Sometimes it might give suboptimal or flatly wrong answers, so always think critically and ask the right questions. For instance, if we examine the Rust example generated earlier to read an object from a GCS bucket in chunks, we’ll notice that it’s not ideal for very large objects, as it reads the entire object into memory. As software engineers, we are responsible for our code and solutions. Use ChatGPT as a helpful assistant, but make sure to double-check its suggestions and maintain control over your work. ChatGPT is a game-changing tool for software engineers. It helps us tackle complex tasks, Outro understand new languages, and improve our code efficiently. By using ChatGPT, we can become better developers and make our work more enjoyable. Let’s embrace ChatGPT’s potential and see how it revolutionizes the way we code! If you like our videos, you may like our system design newsletter as well. It covers topics and trends in large-scale system design. Trusted by 300,000 readers.
