How to extract building information with coordinates using OpenAI function calls?

Other Questions OpenAI
1

I’m trying to use OpenAI’s function calling feature to get building details and location coordinates when I provide a building name or address. Right now I’m using basic prompts and parsing with regex which is unreliable and breaks sometimes.

I want to properly implement function calling so the API returns structured data like this: name: ‘Building Name’, details: ‘Description here’, location: ‘lat: xx.xxx, lng: xx.xxx’

I’ve been stuck on this for hours and can’t get my code to work properly. Here’s what I have so far:

def fetch_building_data(name, details, location_coords):
    """Retrieve building information"""
    building_data = {
        "name": name,
        "details": details,
        "location_coords": location_coords
    }
    return json.dumps(building_data)


def execute_search():
    # Send user input and function definitions to OpenAI
    user_messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me about the library on Main Street"}]
    available_functions = [
        {
            "name": "fetch_building_data",
            "description": "Get information about a specific building",
            "parameters": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "details": {
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Building description and details",
                    },
                    "name": {"type": "string", "description": "Building name"},
                },
                "required": ["name"],
            },
        }
    ]
    
    api_response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
        model="gpt-3.5-turbo-0613",
        messages=user_messages,
        functions=available_functions,
        function_call="auto",
    )
    
    message_response = api_response["choices"][0]["message"]

    # Check if OpenAI wants to use our function
    if message_response.get("function_call"):
        function_registry = {
            "fetch_building_data": fetch_building_data,
        }
        
        called_function = message_response["function_call"]["name"]
        target_function = function_registry[called_function]
        parsed_args = json.loads(message_response["function_call"]["arguments"])
        
        result = target_function(
            name=parsed_args.get("name"),
            details=parsed_args.get("details"),
            location_coords=parsed_args.get("location_coords"),
        )

        # Send function result back to OpenAI
        user_messages.append(message_response)
        user_messages.append(
            {
                "role": "function",
                "name": called_function,
                "content": result,
            }
        )
        
        final_response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
            model="gpt-3.5-turbo-0613",
            messages=user_messages,
        )
        return final_response


print(execute_search())

What am I doing wrong here? The function calling isn’t working as expected.

2

your function definition is missing the location_coords parameter, but fetch_building_data expects it. also, gpt can’t magically know coordinates - you’d need to integrate with google maps api or a similar service to get actual lat/lng data from building names.

3

Your code has a basic misunderstanding about how function calling works. You’re expecting fetch_building_data to magically know building info, but OpenAI just extracts parameters from what the user says - it can’t pull real coordinates or details from nowhere. If someone asks about “the library on Main Street”, OpenAI might grab “library” as the name but won’t have actual coordinates or descriptions. Your function needs to hit real APIs like OpenStreetMap Nominatim for geocoding or Google Places for building data. Also, your function schema’s broken - you’re missing location_coords in the parameters even though your function expects it. Here’s how it should work: user asks → OpenAI extracts building name/address → your function queries external APIs with that info → returns real data.

4

The problem is OpenAI function calling doesn’t actually run your function - it just spits out the parameters it would send. Your fetch_building_data function isn’t hooked up to any real data, so it can’t give you actual building info or coordinates. You need to connect it to a real database or API. For coordinates, use a geocoding service like Google Places API or Nominatim. Make your function do actual API calls with the parameters OpenAI gives you. Also, ChatCompletion.create() is deprecated - switch to openai.chat.completions.create() instead.