Use examples to show the pattern
Use zero-shot and few-shot examples to clarify what a good response looks like.
- Decide when examples help and choose examples that match the task.
A prompt without demonstrations is often called zero-shot. Adding a small number of input-output examples is few-shot prompting. Examples can show a classification convention, writing style, or output structure more clearly than abstract instructions alone. Keep examples representative, consistent, and close to the real task; a misleading example can teach the wrong pattern.
A small example
1examples = [
2 ("late delivery", "shipping"),
3 ("charged twice", "billing"),
4]
5for message, label in examples:
6 print(f"Message: {message} -> Category: {label}")Message: late delivery -> Category: shipping Message: charged twice -> Category: billing
Examples consume context space and can bias the result toward their specific wording or label balance. Include edge cases when they matter, but keep a separate evaluation set to check whether the prompt works beyond the examples it shows the model.
Key takeaways
Decide when examples help and choose examples that match the task.
Test prompts on realistic inputs and validate important outputs in software.
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