Introduction

Having the right tools at your disposal in software development can make all the difference. Enter ChatGPT, a powerful language model revolutionizing how software developers approach their work. While you might have used ChatGPT to assist with code creation, there is a lot more that it can do! In this blog post, we will explore a curated collection of ChatGPT prompts designed to assist software developers in their daily tasks, providing insights, code snippets, and problem-solving guidance. Let's get started!

Getting Started

#1 Learn and verify terminal commands without risking any damage to your system. This can be useful in shell script generation, testing automation of removal of files, and much more!

Prompt (Author Credit): I want you to act as a linux terminal. I will type commands and you will reply with what the terminal should show. I want you to only reply with the terminal output inside one unique code block, and nothing else. do not write explanations. do not type commands unless I instruct you to do so. When I need to tell you something in English, I will do so by putting text inside curly brackets {like this}. My first command is pwd.

Act as a Linux Terminal

Note: While I used the Linux terminal in this example, you could tweak the ChatGPT Prompt to support other OSes, such as the Command Prompt for Windows.

#2 Use ChatGPT as a JavaScript console to test in a "clean" environment.

Prompt (Author Credit): I want you to act as a javascript console. I will type commands and you will reply with what the javascript console should show. I want you to only reply with the terminal output inside one unique code block, and nothing else. do not write explanations. do not type commands unless I instruct you to do so. when I need to tell you something in english, I will do so by putting text inside curly brackets {like this}. My first command is console.log("Hello World");

Act as a JavaScript Console

#3 Generate code for publicly known APIs with instructions on how to use it and what needs to be installed.

Prompt : Write a Python function to send an SMS from Vonage Communication APIs.

Fetch data from a public API

#4 Practice SQL commands without deploying a SQL Instance or creating a table.

Prompt (Author Credit : I want you to act as a SQL terminal in front of an example database. The database contains tables named "Products", "Users", "Orders" and "Suppliers". I will type queries and you will reply with what the terminal would show. I want you to reply with a table of query results in a single code block, and nothing else. Do not write explanations. Do not type commands unless I instruct you to do so. When I need to tell you something in English I will do so in curly braces {like this). My first command is 'SELECT TOP 10 * FROM Products ORDER BY Id DESC'.

Act as a SQL Instance

#5 Become a [programming language] interpreter without installing any of the tools. This is great for testing short code snippets without spinning up a resource.

Prompt (Author Credit) : I want you to act like a Python interpreter. I will give you Python code, and you will execute it. Do not provide any explanations. Do not respond with anything except the output of the code. The first code is: "print('hello world!')"

Programming Language Interpreter

#6 Create Regular Expressions tailored to your specific requirements.

Prompt (Author Credit) : I want you to act as a regex generator. Your role is to generate regular expressions that match specific patterns in text. You should provide the regular expressions in a format that can be easily copied and pasted into a regex-enabled text editor or programming language. Do not write explanations or examples of how the regular expressions work; simply provide only the regular expressions themselves. My first prompt is to generate a regular expression that matches an email address.

Help with Regular Expressions

#7 Find bugs in short code snippets.

Prompt : Find bugs in the following JavaScript code:

function add(a, b} {
    return a + b;
}

Easily find bugs in your code

#8 Generate architectural diagrams for your project requirements.

Prompt (Author Credit) : I want you to act as a Graphviz DOT generator, an expert to create meaningful diagrams. The diagram should have at least n nodes (I specify n in my input by writting [n], 10 being the default value) and to be an accurate and complexe representation of the given input. Each node is indexed by a number to reduce the size of the output, should not include any styling, and with layout=neato, overlap=false, node [shape=rectangle] as parameters. The code should be valid, bugless and returned on a single line, without any explanation. Provide a clear and organized diagram, the relationships between the nodes have to make sense for an expert of that input. My first diagram is: "The water cycle [8]".

Generate Diagrams

You can then use the code generated with something like this to generate the image and export it to your computer.

Generated Diagram

#9 Get top-ranked answers to your programming questions without using Stack Overflow.

Prompt (Author Credit) : I want you to act as a Stack Overflow post. I will ask programming-related questions and you will reply with what the answer should be. I want you to only reply with the given answer, and write explanations when there is not enough detail. do not write explanations. When I need to tell you something in English, I will do so by putting text inside curly brackets {like this}. My first question is "How do I read the body of an http request to a string in Golang".

StackOverflow assistant

#10 Identify potential performance improvements in your code to suggest changes that could result in faster execution times or lower memory consumption.

Prompt : Optimize the following JavaScript code:

codeBlock='''function example() {
  var startTime = new Date().getTime();
  // ... code ...
  var endTime = new Date().getTime();
  return (endTime - startTime) / 1000;
}'''

Optimize Code Snippets

BONUS! I'm sure all of us have been stuck with some Git problems before. Use ChatGPT to provide guidance on how to overcome it.

Prompt : Explain how to resolve this Git merge conflict: [conflict details].”

$ git status
> # On branch branch-b
> # You have unmerged paths.
> #   (fix conflicts and run "git commit")
> #
> # Unmerged paths:
> #   (use "git add ..." to mark resolution)
> #
> # both modified:      styleguide.md
> #
> no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

Resolve Git Issues

Wrap-up

In conclusion, ChatGPT prompts provide software developers with a valuable tool for various aspects of their work. From acting as a Linux terminal or JavaScript console to regex patterns or creating diagrams, ChatGPT can assist in day-to-day tasks, problem-solving, and creativity. ChatGPT's capacity as a programming language interpreter and knowledge base make it a valuable resource for answering technical questions and providing code snippets. With its ability to generate relevant and concise responses, ChatGPT prompts are a useful companion for software developers.

Thanks for reading and if you have questions or feedback, join us on the Vonage Developer Slack or send me a Tweet on Twitter, and I will get back to you.