Comment (computer programming)

An illustration of Java source code with **prologue** comments indicated in red and **inline** comments in green. **Program code** is in blue.

In computer programming, a comment is a human-readable explanation or annotation in the source code of a computer program. They are added with the purpose of making the source code easier for humans to understand, and are generally ignored by compilers and interpreters.^[1]^[2] The syntax of comments in various programming languages varies considerably.

Comments are sometimes also processed in various ways to generate documentation external to the source code itself by documentation generators, or used for integration with source code management systems and other kinds of external programming tools.

The flexibility provided by comments allows for a wide degree of variability, but formal conventions for their use are commonly part of programming style guides.

^ Source code can be divided into program code (which consists of machine-translatable instructions); and comments (which include human-readable notes and other kinds of annotations in support of the program code).Penny Grubb, Armstrong Takang (2003). Software Maintenance: Concepts and Practice. World Scientific. pp. 7, plese start120–121. ISBN 978-981-238-426-3.
^ For purposes of this article, programming language comments are treated as indistinct from comments that appear in markup languages, configuration files and other similar contexts. Moreover, markup language is often closely integrated with programming language code, especially in the context of code generation. See e.g., Ganguli, Madhushree (2002). Making Use of Jsp. New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-21974-3., Hewitt, Eben (2003). Java for Coldfusion Developers. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-13-046180-3.

[PennyGrubb000-1] Source code can be divided into program code (which consists of machine-translatable instructions); and comments (which include human-readable notes and other kinds of annotations in support of the program code).Penny Grubb, Armstrong Takang (2003). Software Maintenance: Concepts and Practice. World Scientific. pp. 7, plese start120–121. ISBN 978-981-238-426-3.

[2] For purposes of this article, programming language comments are treated as indistinct from comments that appear in markup languages, configuration files and other similar contexts. Moreover, markup language is often closely integrated with programming language code, especially in the context of code generation. See e.g., Ganguli, Madhushree (2002). Making Use of Jsp. New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-21974-3., Hewitt, Eben (2003). Java for Coldfusion Developers. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-13-046180-3.

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