Copilot Fundamentals Training Exercises

Introduction

⚠️ Note: The primary objective of this demo Repository is not to complete all the exercises. If you don't achieve the exact results by the end, that's perfectly fine! What matters most is that you gain insight into how to use Copilot effectively.

Overview

Our goal is to acquaint you with Copilot's functionalities and demonstrate diverse ways to interact effectively with Copilot.

Copilot and Copilot Chat, while built on the same backend technology, serve distinct roles within your integrated development environment (IDE). To put it simply, Copilot functions as a coding assistant, responding to your in-code context, while Copilot Chat operates as your research assistant, enabling chat-based communication for more interactive collaboration with Copilot.

As these exercises leverage Copilot for code suggestions, please note that Copilot's responses may vary depending on the context. We welcome this variability, as it showcases the dynamic capabilities of Copilot.

For effective interaction with Copilot, it's essential to keep in mind that Copilot benefits from your guidance and supervision!

To use copilot's own words,

"I’m powered by AI, so surprises and mistakes are possible. Make sure to verify any generated code or suggestions, and share feedback so that we can learn and improve."

Let's Build From Here...

---

Copilot Fundamentals - Training Exercises

How to use it !

• Each of the exercise categories is indicated by a Copilot icon

• 'Inside' these categories you will see the individual exercises marked with, ✏️

  • We provide an estimate on what we think the exercise will take to complete, 🕙
    (it's just an estimate 😄)

• Each exercise contains two main sections!

  • Description - What is the exercise about and how to do it
  • Repository Link: - If possible we provided a reference to additional instructions or prepaed setups, to help you with the task. Note: not all exercises require/provide a link
    
    

---

Getting Started

Prompt engineering is the process of designing and creating high-quality prompts that can be used to generate accurate and useful code suggestions with Copilot.

GitHub

---

✏️ Copilot First Steps (🕙 5 min)

• Description:

  • Configurations

    • Check the configuration options of your Copilot Plugin

      

    • Check the Copilot keyboard shortcuts in your IDE. A link to them should be listed in the config options.

      • Specifically have a look at the Keyboard shortcut for the Copilot Suggestions Tab

  • Copilot Suggestions

    • Use Inline help

      • Open a code file in your IDE (eg.: phoneNumberValidator.py)

      • Start typing a comment, to tell Copilot what you want it to do

      • Example:

        # function to validate phone numbers and to return a true or false value

        Hit return to 'trigger' Copilot Suggestions

    • Use the Suggestions Tab

      • The default shortcut for VS-Code is: control + enter
      • IntelliJ Jetbrains does not have shortcut defined by default, please create one.

• Repository Link: Inside the /copilot-fundamentals-training Repo open, /demos/copilot-operations/phoneNumberValidator.py

---

Prompt Techniques

---

✏️ Prompt Techniques & Neighboring Tabs (🕙 5 min)

• Description: Practice Zero-Shot, One-Shot prompting etc.

• Repository Link: Inside the /copilot-fundamentals-training Repo open, /demos/copilot-prompt-engineering-1.md

---

✏️ Think step by step (🕙 10 min)

• Description: Create a NodeJS calculator, with the help of Copilot

  • Open the /demos/Node-Calculator/README.md

  • Follow the instructions in that file.

    • The ':arrow_forward: Help' sections provide solution examples, click them to expand. ...

• Repository Link: Inside the /copilot-fundamentals-training Repo open, /demos/Node-Calculator/README.md

---

Tips & Techniques

---

✏️ Copilot Mulitlingual Features (🕙 5 min)

• Description: Test Copilots Multilingual features. For this exercise we don't require any pre-set files from the Repo, simply open a new file in your IDE and follo the instructions below.

  • Choose any language and instruct Copilot to create code. For example import statements, functions etc.

    • Choose any coding-language you prefer

    • Spanish:

    // Importar todas las bibliotecas 
    // necesarias para FileStreaming
    

    • German:

    // Importiere alle erforderlichen 
    // Bibliotheken für FileStreaming
    

  • Optional: Create a class that provides greetings or form labels in multiple languages Choose any coding-language you prefer Try non-ASCII character sets (eg.: Chinese, Hebrew, ...)

• Repository Link: None, simply use a new file in your IDE

---

✏️ Offering Alternatives (🕙 5 min)

If at first you don’t succeed, try again

• Description

  • Create a NEW file in your IDE, with a description comment

  • ⚠️ NOTE: The file extension you choose determines the code language that Copilot provides suggestions for!

    For example: myfunction.js will tell Copilot to use Javascript/Node as the suggestion language.

    • Use this sample

    // @description This function sorts numbers based on a given order.

  • Have a look what Copilot suggests

  • Modify the “description comment”, for example provide more details and check the provided suggestions again

• Repository Link: None, simply use a new file in your IDE

---

✏️ Use Copilot to Understand / Explain Code (🕙 5 min)

• Description

  • Open the /demos/document-code/README.md file and follow the instructions

  • Remember to "ask Copilot at every level”

    • Class
    • Method / Function
    • Single instruction

• Repository Link: Inside the /copilot-fundamentals-training Repo open, /demos/document-code/README.md

---

Extra Credit (optional 😃 )

Have a look at writing a Client App to subscribe to Copilot incidents.

• Repository Reference: GitHub-Status-With-Copilot.md