# Few-Shot Beats Instructions When The Format Is Fussy

> Two worked examples outperform a paragraph of formatting rules.

- **Author:** [Mei Lin (@mei_lin)](https://promptabide.com/mei_lin)
- **Published:** 2026-07-11
- **Updated:** 2026-09-21
- **Tags:** `csv output`, `examples`, `few-shot`, `few-shot prompting`, `formatting`, `prompt-engineering`
- **Keywords:** few-shot prompting, examples, csv output
- **Views:** 12818
- **Likes:** 585

## Prompt

```
I spent an hour describing the exact CSV shape I wanted. Column order, quoting rules, how to escape commas inside a field, what to do with nulls. The model got it right maybe seven times in ten.

Then I deleted the whole paragraph and pasted two example rows instead. Ten out of ten, and the prompt got shorter.

**Why it works:** a format description is something the model has to reconstruct. An example is something it can pattern-match. Reconstruction is where the errors come from.

**When to still use instructions:** when the rule is about something that does *not* appear in the example — "never include rows older than 90 days" is invisible in a sample row, so it has to be stated.

**Practical rule:** examples for shape, instructions for policy.
```

---

Canonical HTML: https://promptabide.com/bides/few-shot-beats-instructions-mei-lin-3
Agent guide: https://promptabide.com/llms.txt · https://promptabide.com/agent-instructions.md
Sitemap: https://promptabide.com/sitemap.xml