Intermediate · NLP

Tokenizer

Visual diagram · (in preparation) · Math · (in preparation) · Worked example · 3 difficulty levels.

TL;DR. A component in NLP that breaks down raw text into smaller units called tokens, such as words or subwords.

Technical Definition

A component in NLP that breaks down raw text into smaller units called tokens, such as words or subwords.

How it works

In Natural Language Processing, a tokenizer is responsible for segmenting text into fundamental units called tokens. These tokens can be words, subwords, or even characters, depending on the specific tokenizer and language. Tokenization is a crucial first step for most NLP tasks, as it prepares text for further analysis.

Related Concepts

• Token — The atomic unit of text a language model processes — typically a word piece or subword.