How To Comment In Python

Comments are an essential part of any programming language. They serve as a communication tool for both the programmer and other developers who may work on the code later. Comments make your code more readable and easier to understand by providing explanations, clarifications, or guidance about what the code is doing. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to write comments in Python, including single-line and multi-line comments.

Single-line Comments

Single-line comments in Python are created using the hash symbol (#). This symbol tells the interpreter to ignore everything following it on the same line. To write a single-line comment, simply place a # at the beginning of the line and type your comment after it. For example:

Note that you can also place the comment at the end of a line of code, as shown in the second example above. This can be useful for providing brief explanations about specific lines of code.

Multi-line Comments

Python does not have a specific syntax for multi-line comments. However, you can use the triple-quotes (“”” or ”’) to create a multi-line string, and the interpreter will ignore it if you don’t assign it to a variable. This approach is commonly used to create multi-line comments in Python, especially for providing more detailed explanations or for documenting functions and classes. Here’s an example:

While not specifically designed for comments, this method works well for creating more extensive explanations, guidelines, or overviews in your code.

Docstrings

In addition to single-line and multi-line comments, Python has a built-in way to document functions, classes, and modules called docstrings. A docstring is a multi-line string enclosed in triple quotes (“”” or ”’) and placed immediately after the function or class definition. Docstrings are different from regular comments because they can be accessed during runtime using the .__doc__ attribute of the function or class.