What is sent_tokenize in Python?

In Natural Language Processing, tokenization is used to divide a string into a list of tokens. Tokens come in handy when finding valuable patterns and helping to replace sensitive data components with non-sensitive ones.

Tokens can be thought of as a word in a sentence or a sentence in a paragraph.

The sent_tokenize function in Python can tokenize inserted text into sentences.

In Python, we can tokenize with the help of the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) library. The library needs to be imported in the code.

Installation of NLTK

With Python 2.x, NLTK can be installed in the device using the command shown below:

pip install nltk

With Python 3.x, NLTK can be installed in the device using the following command:

pip3 install nltk

However, installation is not yet complete. In the Python file, the code below needs to be run:

import nltk
nltk.download()

Upon executing the code, an interface will pop up. Under the heading of collections, click on all and then click on download to finish the installation.

Example

The code below explains how the sent_tokenize function operates.