smart text splitter (#530)

smart text splitter that iteratively tries different separators until it
works!

docs/modules/utils/combine_docs_examples/textsplitter.ipynb

@@ -90,6 +90,61 @@
     "print(texts[0])"
    ]
   },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "id": "1be00b73",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Recursive Character Text Splitting\n",
+    "Sometimes, it's not enough to split on just one character. This text splitter uses a whole list of characters and recursive splits them down until they are under the limit."
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 2,
+   "id": "1ac6376d",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from langchain.text_splitter import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 3,
+   "id": "6787b13b",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "text_splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(\n",
+    "    # Set a really small chunk size, just to show.\n",
+    "    chunk_size = 100,\n",
+    "    chunk_overlap  = 20,\n",
+    "    length_function = len,\n",
+    ")"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 4,
+   "id": "4f0e7d9b",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Congress and the Cabinet.\n",
+      "and the Cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court. My fellow Americans.  \n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "texts = text_splitter.split_text(state_of_the_union)\n",
+    "print(texts[0])\n",
+    "print(texts[1])"
+   ]
+  },
   {
    "cell_type": "markdown",
    "id": "87a71115",

langchain/text_splitter.py

@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ class TextSplitter(ABC):
 
     def __init__(
         self,
-        separator: str = "\n\n",
         chunk_size: int = 4000,
         chunk_overlap: int = 200,
         length_function: Callable[[str], int] = len,
@@ -26,7 +25,6 @@ class TextSplitter(ABC):
                 f"Got a larger chunk overlap ({chunk_overlap}) than chunk size "
                 f"({chunk_size}), should be smaller."
             )
-        self._separator = separator
         self._chunk_size = chunk_size
         self._chunk_overlap = chunk_overlap
         self._length_function = length_function
@@ -46,7 +44,7 @@ class TextSplitter(ABC):
                 documents.append(Document(page_content=chunk, metadata=_metadatas[i]))
         return documents
 
-    def _merge_splits(self, splits: Iterable[str]) -> List[str]:
+    def _merge_splits(self, splits: Iterable[str], separator: str) -> List[str]:
         # We now want to combine these smaller pieces into medium size
         # chunks to send to the LLM.
         docs = []
@@ -61,13 +59,18 @@ class TextSplitter(ABC):
                         f"which is longer than the specified {self._chunk_size}"
                     )
                 if len(current_doc) > 0:
-                    docs.append(self._separator.join(current_doc))
+                    docs.append(separator.join(current_doc))
-                    while total > self._chunk_overlap:
+                    # Keep on popping if:
+                    # - we have a larger chunk than in the chunk overlap
+                    # - or if we still have any chunks and the length is long
+                    while total > self._chunk_overlap or (
+                        total + _len > self._chunk_size and total > 0
+                    ):
                         total -= self._length_function(current_doc[0])
                         current_doc = current_doc[1:]
             current_doc.append(d)
             total += _len
-        docs.append(self._separator.join(current_doc))
+        docs.append(separator.join(current_doc))
         return docs
 
     @classmethod
@@ -116,21 +119,74 @@ class TextSplitter(ABC):
 class CharacterTextSplitter(TextSplitter):
     """Implementation of splitting text that looks at characters."""
 
+    def __init__(self, separator: str = "\n\n", **kwargs: Any):
+        """Create a new TextSplitter."""
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
+        self._separator = separator
+
     def split_text(self, text: str) -> List[str]:
         """Split incoming text and return chunks."""
         # First we naively split the large input into a bunch of smaller ones.
+        if self._separator:
             splits = text.split(self._separator)
-        return self._merge_splits(splits)
+        else:
+            splits = list(text)
+        return self._merge_splits(splits, self._separator)
+
+
+class RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(TextSplitter):
+    """Implementation of splitting text that looks at characters.
+
+    Recursively tries to split by different characters to find one
+    that works.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, separators: Optional[List[str]] = None, **kwargs: Any):
+        """Create a new TextSplitter."""
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
+        self._separators = separators or ["\n\n", "\n", " ", ""]
+
+    def split_text(self, text: str) -> List[str]:
+        """Split incoming text and return chunks."""
+        final_chunks = []
+        # Get appropriate separator to use
+        separator = self._separators[-1]
+        for _s in self._separators:
+            if _s == "":
+                separator = _s
+                break
+            if _s in text:
+                separator = _s
+                break
+        # Now that we have the separator, split the text
+        if separator:
+            splits = text.split(separator)
+        else:
+            splits = list(text)
+        # Now go merging things, recursively splitting longer texts.
+        _good_splits = []
+        for s in splits:
+            if len(s) < self._chunk_size:
+                _good_splits.append(s)
+            else:
+                if _good_splits:
+                    merged_text = self._merge_splits(_good_splits, separator)
+                    final_chunks.extend(merged_text)
+                    _good_splits = []
+                other_info = self.split_text(s)
+                final_chunks.extend(other_info)
+        if _good_splits:
+            merged_text = self._merge_splits(_good_splits, separator)
+            final_chunks.extend(merged_text)
+        return final_chunks
 
 
 class NLTKTextSplitter(TextSplitter):
     """Implementation of splitting text that looks at sentences using NLTK."""
 
-    def __init__(
+    def __init__(self, separator: str = "\n\n", **kwargs: Any):
-        self, separator: str = "\n\n", chunk_size: int = 4000, chunk_overlap: int = 200
-    ):
         """Initialize the NLTK splitter."""
-        super(NLTKTextSplitter, self).__init__(separator, chunk_size, chunk_overlap)
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
         try:
             from nltk.tokenize import sent_tokenize
 
@@ -139,26 +195,23 @@ class NLTKTextSplitter(TextSplitter):
             raise ImportError(
                 "NLTK is not installed, please install it with `pip install nltk`."
             )
+        self._separator = separator
 
     def split_text(self, text: str) -> List[str]:
         """Split incoming text and return chunks."""
         # First we naively split the large input into a bunch of smaller ones.
         splits = self._tokenizer(text)
-        return self._merge_splits(splits)
+        return self._merge_splits(splits, self._separator)
 
 
 class SpacyTextSplitter(TextSplitter):
     """Implementation of splitting text that looks at sentences using Spacy."""
 
     def __init__(
-        self,
+        self, separator: str = "\n\n", pipeline: str = "en_core_web_sm", **kwargs: Any
-        separator: str = "\n\n",
-        pipeline: str = "en_core_web_sm",
-        chunk_size: int = 4000,
-        chunk_overlap: int = 200,
     ):
         """Initialize the spacy text splitter."""
-        super(SpacyTextSplitter, self).__init__(separator, chunk_size, chunk_overlap)
+        super.__init__(**kwargs)
         try:
             import spacy
         except ImportError:
@@ -166,8 +219,9 @@ class SpacyTextSplitter(TextSplitter):
                 "Spacy is not installed, please install it with `pip install spacy`."
             )
         self._tokenizer = spacy.load(pipeline)
+        self._separator = separator
 
     def split_text(self, text: str) -> List[str]:
         """Split incoming text and return chunks."""
         splits = (str(s) for s in self._tokenizer(text).sents)
-        return self._merge_splits(splits)
+        return self._merge_splits(splits, self._separator)

tests/unit_tests/test_text_splitter.py

@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 import pytest
 
 from langchain.docstore.document import Document
-from langchain.text_splitter import CharacterTextSplitter
+from langchain.text_splitter import (
+    CharacterTextSplitter,
+    RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter,
+)
 
 
 def test_character_text_splitter() -> None:
@@ -23,6 +26,15 @@ def test_character_text_splitter_long() -> None:
     assert output == expected_output
 
 
+def test_character_text_splitter_short_words_first() -> None:
+    """Test splitting by character count when shorter words are first."""
+    text = "a a foo bar baz"
+    splitter = CharacterTextSplitter(separator=" ", chunk_size=3, chunk_overlap=1)
+    output = splitter.split_text(text)
+    expected_output = ["a a", "foo", "bar", "baz"]
+    assert output == expected_output
+
+
 def test_character_text_splitter_longer_words() -> None:
     """Test splitting by characters when splits not found easily."""
     text = "foo bar baz 123"
@@ -62,3 +74,33 @@ def test_create_documents_with_metadata() -> None:
         Document(page_content="baz", metadata={"source": "2"}),
     ]
     assert docs == expected_docs
+
+
+def test_iterative_text_splitter() -> None:
+    """Test iterative text splitter."""
+    text = """Hi.\n\nI'm Harrison.\n\nHow? Are? You?\nOkay then f f f f.
+This is a weird text to write, but gotta test the splittingggg some how.
+
+Bye!\n\n-H."""
+    splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(chunk_size=10, chunk_overlap=1)
+    output = splitter.split_text(text)
+    expected_output = [
+        "Hi.",
+        "I'm",
+        "Harrison.",
+        "How? Are?",
+        "You?",
+        "Okay then f",
+        "f f f f.",
+        "This is a",
+        "a weird",
+        "text to",
+        "write, but",
+        "gotta test",
+        "the",
+        "splitting",
+        "gggg",
+        "some how.",
+        "Bye!\n\n-H.",
+    ]
+    assert output == expected_output