Function Call - Arrays as Parameters

API
1

Perhaps this is obvious to some, but I was working with function call capability to get the latitude and longitude from a mailing address using the Nomanitim API.

Initially, I used the following to define my function which I named get_coordinates:

completion = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
   model="gpt-4-0613",
   messages=[{"role": "user", "content": my_prompt}],
   functions=[
   {
       "name": "get_coordinates",
       "description": "Get the latitude and longitude of a mailing address",
       "parameters": {
           "type": "object",
           "properties": {
               "address": {
                   "type": "string",
                   "description": "The mailing address to be located",
                },
               
           },
           "required": ["address"],
       },
   }
  ],
function_call="auto",
) code here

This worked well, for prompts where only a single address was part of the prompt. For example,

“Find the location of 123 Main Street, Anytown, Ontario Canada”, but if I used prompt, “Find the location for the following addresses: 123 Main Street, Anytown, Ontario Canada, 456 Second Street, Anytown, Ontario” , only the first address would be pulled as an argument, the second was ignored.

My solution was as follows:

completion = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
    model="gpt-4-0613",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": my_prompt}],
    functions=[
    {
    "name": "get_coordinates",
    "description": "Get the latitude and longitude of multiple mailing addresses",
    "parameters": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "addresses": {
                "type": "array",
                "description": "The mailing addresses to be located",
                "items": {
                    "type": "string"
                }
            }
        },
        "required": ["addresses"]
    }
  }
   ],
function_call="auto",
)

By changing the definition from a string to an array of strings, I could now put any number of addresses in my prompt and extract them to do my function calls.

15 Likes
2

Thanks for posting this. I was about to post about how to get multiple outputs or function calls. Very helpful!

2 Likes
3

You need to set your function call into the system role to work properly and the request from the user in the user role as usual.
Function calling is fine-tuned for the system role. This acts now as the knowledgebase for such commands.
And I suggest to set the temperature to 0?
What is the output?

2 Likes
4

Useful information, thanks ! While the code works fine without the system role, I take your point. I will also do as you suggest with respect to setting the temperature to 0.
Given a prompt like:

"Can you provide the coordinates for Parliament Hill, Ottawa Canada and the White House in Washington, D.C."

type {
  "id": "chatcmpl-7SUo4zUR5DNVQ3KDJuujrCSu0CDHY",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "created": 1687025960,
  "model": "gpt-4-0613",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": null,
        "function_call": {
          "name": "get_coordinates",
          "arguments": "{\n  \"addresses\": [\"Parliament Hill, Ottawa Canada\", \"White House, Washington D.C.\"]\n}"
        }
      },
      "finish_reason": "function_call"
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 78,
    "completion_tokens": 28,
    "total_tokens": 106
  }
}

 Response: None

 Function Call: get_coordinates

 Addresses: ['Parliament Hill, Ottawa Canada', 'White House, Washington D.C.'] paste code here
1 Like
5

@PriNova what do you mean by set your function call into the system role? The “functions” and “function_call” parameters are outside the list of messages when passed to OpenAI, so I struggle to see how it could be into the system role.

6

It is plausible nonsense. Perhaps even unaware of the new-at-the-time function ability.

The function definition is injected into a system role behind the scenes, but you just put the function definition object as parameter for the API and the API takes care of the rest.

1 Like
7

I apologize for the bad wording. What I meant was, to set the instructions for using the function call API at the system role.