This example demonstrates how to use ControlFlow to create a task that standardizes multiple place names into consistent postal addresses in a single operation. It showcases the use of custom types and efficient batch processing.

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Code

The following code creates a function that takes a list of place names and returns a list of standardized addresses: 
import controlflow as cf
from pydantic import BaseModel
from typing import List

class StandardAddress(BaseModel):
    city: str
    state: str
    country: str = "USA"

def standardize_addresses(place_names: List[str]) -> List[StandardAddress]:
    return cf.run(
        "Standardize the given place names into consistent postal addresses",
        result_type=List[StandardAddress],
        context={"place_names": place_names}
    )
You can use this function to standardize a list of place names: 
place_names = [
    "NYC", "New York, NY", "Big Apple",
    "Los Angeles, California", "LA",
    "San Fran", "The Windy City"
]

standardized_addresses = standardize_addresses(place_names)

for original, standard in zip(place_names, standardized_addresses):
    print(f"Original: {original}")
    print(f"Standardized: {standard}")
    print()

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Key concepts

This implementation showcases several important ControlFlow features:
  1. Pydantic models: We use a Pydantic model (StandardAddress) to define the structure of our standardized addresses. This ensures that the standardization task returns well-structured, consistent results. 
    class StandardAddress(BaseModel):
    city: str
    state: str
    country: str = "USA"
  2. Batch processing: We process a list of place names in a single task, which is more efficient than processing them individually. This is achieved by specifying List[StandardAddress] as the result_type. 
    result_type=List[StandardAddress]
  3. Context passing: We pass the entire list of place names as context to the task, allowing the LLM to process all inputs at once. 
    context={"place_names": place_names}
  4. Simple task creation: We use cf.run() to create and execute a task in a single step, simplifying our code. 
    return cf.run(
    "Standardize the given place names into consistent postal addresses",
    result_type=List[StandardAddress],
    context={"place_names": place_names}
)
By leveraging these ControlFlow features, we create an efficient and straightforward address standardization tool. This example demonstrates how ControlFlow can be used to build AI-powered data processing workflows that handle multiple inputs in a single operation, improving performance and reducing costs.