C# Comments

Comments are used in a program to help us understand a piece of code. They are human readable words intended to make the code readable. Comments are completely ignored by the compiler.

In C#, there are 3 types of comments:

1. Single Line Comments ( // )
2. Multi Line Comments (/* */)
3. XML Comments ( /// )

Single Line Comments

Single line comments start with a double slash //. The compiler ignores everything after // to the end of the line. For example,

int a = 5 + 7; // Adding 5 and 7

Here, Adding 5 and 7 is the comment.

Example 1: Using single line comment

// Hello World Program
using System;

namespace HelloWorld
{
	class Program
	{
		public static void Main(string[] args)  // Execution Starts from Main method
		{
			// Prints Hello World
			Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
		}
	}
}

The above program contains 3 single line comments:

// Hello World Program
// Execution Starts from Main method

and

// Prints Hello World

Single line comments can be written in a separate line or along with the codes in same line. However, it is recommended to use comments in a separate line.

Multi Line Comments

Multi line comments start with /* and ends with */. Multi line comments can span over multiple lines.

Example 2: Using multi line comment

/*
	This is a Hello World Program in C#.
	This program prints Hello World.
*/
using System;

namespace HelloWorld
{
	class Program
	{
		public static void Main(string[] args)
		{
			/* Prints Hello World     */
			Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
		}
	}
}

The above program contains 2 multi line comments:

/*
This is a Hello World Program in C#.
This program prints Hello World.
*/

and

/* Prints Hello World */

Here, we may have noticed that it is not compulsory for a multi line comment to span over multiple lines. /* … */ can be used instead of single line comments.

XML Documentation Comments

XML documentation comment is a special feature in C#. It starts with a triple slash /// and is used to categorically describe a piece of code.. This is done using XML tags within a comment. These comments are then, used to create a separate XML documentation file.

If you are not familiar with XML, see What is XML?

Example 3: Using XML documentation comment

/// <summary>
///  This is a hello world program.
/// </summary>

using System;

namespace HelloWorld
{
	class Program
	{
		public static void Main(string[] args)
		{
			Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
		}
	}
}

The XML comment used in the above program is

/// <summary>
/// This is a hello world program.
/// </summary>

The XML documentation (.xml file) generated will contain:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<doc>
	<assembly>
		<name>HelloWorld</name>
	</assembly>
	<members>
	</members>
</doc>

Visit XML Documentation Comments if you are interested in learning more.

Use Comments the Right Way

Comments are used to explain parts of code but they should not be overused .

For example:

// Prints Hello World
Console.WriteLine("Hello World");

Using comment in the above example is not necessary. It is obvious that the line will print Hello World. Comments should be avoided in such cases.

• Instead comments should be used in the program to explain complex algorithms and techniques.
• Comments should be short and to the point instead of a long description.
• As a rule of thumb, it is better to explain why instead of how, using comments.