---
license: mit
tags:
  - tokenizer
  - code
  - python
---

# Python Code Tokenizer (CodeSearchNet)

A domain-specific tokenizer trained from the GPT-2 tokenizer, fine-tuned on Python source code to better handle code syntax, identifiers, and structure compared to a general-purpose English tokenizer.

## Details

- **Base tokenizer:** GPT-2 (`gpt2`)
- **Training corpus:** [CodeSearchNet](https://huggingface.co/datasets/code-search-net/code_search_net), Python split
- **Vocabulary size:** 52,000
- **Training method:** `train_new_from_iterator` (Hugging Face `tokenizers` library)

## Motivation

Standard NLP tokenizers like GPT-2's are trained on natural language and tend to over-fragment code — splitting common patterns like indentation, snake_case identifiers, and Python keywords into many small subword tokens. Training on a code-specific corpus lets the tokenizer learn more efficient, code-aware merges, reducing the number of tokens needed to represent typical Python source.

## Usage

```python
from transformers import AutoTokenizer

tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("AlexStamp/code-search-net-tokenizer")
tokens = tokenizer.tokenize("def hello_world():\n    print('Hello!')")
```

## Notes

This tokenizer was trained as part of working through the Hugging Face LLM course (Chapter 6), as a portfolio exercise in tokenizer training and domain adaptation.