Python comments are programmer-readable explanations or annotations in the Python source code. They are added with the purpose of making the source code easier for humans to understand and are ignored by the Python interpreter. Comments enhance the readability of the code and help the programmers understand the code very carefully.
Just like most modern languages, Python supports single-line (or end-of-line) and multi-line (block) comments. Python comments are very similar to the comments available in PHP, BASH, and Perl programming languages.
There are three types of comments available in Python
- Single line Comments
- Multiline Comments
- Docstring Comments
- Single Line Comments
A hash sign (#) that is not inside a string literal begins a comment. All characters after the # and up to the end of the physical line are part of the comment, and the Python interpreter ignores them.
Example:
Following is an example of a single-line comment in Python:
# This is a single line comment in python
print ("Hello, World!")
This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
You can type a comment on the same line after a statement or expression −
name = "Madisetti" # This is again comment
Multi-Line Comments
Python does not provide a direct way to comment on multiple lines. You can comment multiple lines as follows −
# This is a comment.
# This is a comment, too.
# This is a comment, too.
# I said that already.
The following triple-quoted string is also ignored by the Python interpreter and can be used as a multiline comment:
'''
This is a multiline
comment.
'''
Example
Following is an example showing the usage of multi-line comments:
'''
This is a multiline
comment.
'''
print ("Hello, World!")
This produces the following result −
Hello, World!
Docstring Comments
Python docstrings provide a convenient way to provide help documentation with Python modules, functions, classes, and methods. The docstring is then made available via the __doc__ attribute.
def add(a, b):
"""Function to add the value of a and b"""
return a+b
print(add.__doc__)
This produces the following result −
Function to add the value of a and b