Comments in Python are a powerful tool for annotating the code and adding context to programming. It allows adding explanations and reminders to the code without affecting how it runs. Comments are a great way to communicate from within the code. By using comments effectively, one can make code more readable and easier to understand.
Let's dive into how one can use multiple line comment in python.
What is a Multiline Comment in Python?
Using triple quotes (''' or """), multiple-line comments can be created in Python. These multi-line comment blocks are frequently used to explain things, provide documentation, or temporarily disable parts of the code. Here is how they work:
'''
This comment is a multiple-line comment.
It can cross as many lines as are necessary.
It's frequently used for documentation or as a temporary measure
When testing or debugging, disable the code.
'''
Similarly, double-quotes can be used for multiple lines comments :
"""
This is another way to create a multiple-line comment.
It performs the same intent as triple quotes.
"""
Even though Python lacks the built-in syntax for conventional single-line comments (using // or /* */ as in some other languages), programmers frequently use the # symbol for single lines as comments. For longer explanations and documentation within Python code, multiple-line comments with triple quotes are especially helpful.
Types of Multiline Comments in Python
In Python, we do not have any specific multiple-line comments. We can use consecutive single line comments to make a multiple-line comment, or we can use a multi-line string as a comment to create a multiple-line comment in Python.
1.Consecutive Single Line Comment
As the name suggests, many single line comments are used to make multiple-line comments in Python. Here's how:
Python
Python
#Hey, Ninjas!
#Welcome to this page!
#Happy Learning!
print("All the best")
print("--Ninja--")
#This is how
#you deploy
# multi-line comments
#using consecutive single line comments
You can also try this code with Online Python Compiler
As there's no said syntax for multiple line comments in Python, one can straight away use multiple strings as comments.
DocStrings or Documentation Strings is a term for deploying multi-line comments in Python. Just like any other comment, the interpreter ignores it and prints the output. Let's see how:
Python
Python
"""
Hey, Ninjas!
Welcome to this page!
Happy Learning!
"""
print("All the best")
print("--Ninja--")
"""
This is how
you deploy
Multiple line comments
using Documentation Strings
"""
You can also try this code with Online Python Compiler
While the comments are visible in the code, the interpreter ignores the comments in the output for the code.
How to Make Multi-line Comments in Python
There is no built-in method for multiple line comments in Python, in contrast to other programming languages like JavaScript, Java, and C++ that utilise/*...*/.
In Python, there are two ways one can write multi-line comments.
Consecutive Single-line comment
Using Multi-line string as a comment
How to Comment Out Multiple Lines in Visual Studio Code?
You can comment on multiple lines of code using a keyboard shortcut or the built-in commenting feature in Visual Studio Code. This is how you do it:
Using Shortcuts on the Keyboard:
Select the code snippets you want to comment on.
Ctrl + / is the Windows/Linux equivalent. Press Cmd + / on a Mac.
By adding // at the start of each selected line, they will be commented out.
Using Built-in Commenting:
Select which lines to comment on.
Select "Toggle Line Comment" from the context menu by right-click on the selection.
Alternatives include the following keyboard shortcuts:
For Linux and Windows: Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C
On macOS: Cmd + K, Cmd + C
These techniques are effective for various programming languages in Visual Studio Code, making it simple to remove or add comments to multiple lines of code quickly and effectively.
How to Comment Out Multiple Lines in PyCharm?
Using keyboard shortcuts or menu items, PyCharm enables you to comment out multiple lines of code quickly. This is how you do it:
Using Shortcuts on the Keyboard:
Windows and Linux users should select the lines they want to comment it and then press Ctrl + / (slash).
Mac: Press Cmd + / after selecting the lines.
Using the Menu
Select which lines to comment on.
Navigate to the "Code" menu (Mac: "Edit").
Toggle comments by selecting "Comment with Line Comment" or "Uncomment with Line Comment."
Block Comments:
Select the lines you want to comment out in a block of code (multiple lines).
Use the Ctrl + Shift + / keyboard shortcut (or Cmd + Shift + / on a Mac).
These techniques make it simple to remove or add comments to multiple lines of code in PyCharm, which facilitates debugging and increases code readability.
How to Comment Out Multiple Lines in Sublime Text?
Using keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly and easily comment out multiple lines of code in Sublime Text. Following are the simple steps:
Select the Lines: First, choose the lines of code you need to comment out. You can try this by clicking and dragging your cursor over the code line or by clicking down the Shift key and using the arrow keys to select a couple of lines.
Comment Shortcut: After selecting the lines, use the right keyboard shortcut in your programming language. For most programming languages, the shortcut is Ctrl+/ (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+/ (macOS). By pressing these keys together, the selected lines will be commented out using your language's proper comment syntax.
Uncomment: You could use the same keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+/ or Cmd+/) on the commented line to eliminate the comment.
These keyboard shortcuts make it brief and clean to comment and uncomment more than one line of code in Sublime Text, improving your coding performance.
Why Use a Multiline Comment in Python code?
Here are some of the reasons why we should use multiline comments in Python code.
It makes the code organized and easy to read.
We generally use multiline comments to document the code, which means explaining something in detail so that it might be easy for the reader to understand.
Commenting all the experimental ideas that we tried to solve the problem and the pseudocode for the problems are commented in multiline and are very important because it tells about all the approaches we thought to solve the problem.
We also use multiline comments in Python to disable some parts of code and debug the code.
Docstrings in Python
Docstring in Python is short for Python documentation strings. These are the string literals used to comment or document the code in Python. Docstrings are used to describe how the function is working and what the function does.
Let us look at an example of a function with a docstring.
def calculate_sum(a, b):
"""
Function to calculate the sum of two numbers.
Parameters:
a (int): First number
b (int): Second number
Returns:
int: Sum of the two numbers
"""
return a + b
You can also try this code with Online Python Compiler
In this example, we used docstring to explain the function to calculate the sum of two numbers and described the parameters of the function and what the function returns.
Difference between Comments and Docstring in Python
Let us look at the comparison chart below to learn about the difference between comments and docstring in Python.
Comments
Docstring
It is mostly used to explain the code and annotations in code.
It is used for documenting modules, functions, classes and methods in Python.
It is specified by using “#” at the start.
It is specified by using tripe quotes at start and end (''' or """).
It can be single-line or multi-line, depending on the usage.
It is mostly used in multi-line to describe the function.
It is ignored by the Python interpreter.
We can get the docstring in Python using the __doc__ keyword.
It is not associated with specific objects in the code.
It is associated with different objects in the code for providing documentation and data of the code.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you comment out multiple lines in Python?
As we have seen before, in Python uses ( # ) and ( """ """ ) to initiate single line and multiple line comments, respectively. In contrast, other programming languages like Java, C, and C++ use ( // ) and ( /* ........ */ ) for deploying single-line and multi-line comments, respectively.
How to write single line comment and multiline comment in Python?
You can write single-line comments using the `#` symbol in Python. For multi-line comments, you can use triple-quotes `'''` or `"""` to enclose the comment block.
How do you comment a whole section in Python?
To comment out a whole section in Python, enclose the section with triple-quotes (`'''` or `"""`). This turns the entire section into a multi-line comment, effectively commenting it out.
What is multiline statement in Python?
It is the statement that is written across multiple lines, and a new line character marks the end of the statement.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored the depths of Multipleline comment in Python. We learnt that single-line comments are deployed by the character (#), and multiple line comment in Python are deployed using (""" """). We also saw an example with code where two types of comments were deployed.
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