Java Comments

Java Comments

The Java programming language supports three kinds of comments:


/* text */
The compiler ignores everything from /* to */. 

/** documentation */
This indicates a documentation comment (doc comment, for short). The compiler ignores this kind of comment, just like it ignores comments that use /* and */. The JDK javadoc tool uses doc comments when preparing automatically generated documentation. 

// text


The compiler ignores everything from // to the end of the line. 

Example

Java denotes comments in three ways:
1. Double slashes in front of a single line comment:


int i=5; // Set the integer to 5


2. Matching slash-asterisk (/*) and asterisk-slash (*/) to bracket multi-line comments:


/*
Set the integer to 5
*/
int i=5;


3. Matching slash-double asterisk (/**) & asterisk-slash(*/) for Javadoc automatic hypertext documentation, as in


/**
This applet tests graphics.
*/
public class testApplet extends applet{...


or


/**
* Asterisks inside the comment are ignored by javadoc so they
* can be used to make nice line markers.
**/


The SDK tool javadoc uses the latter /** ..*/ comment style when it produces hypertext pages to describe a class.