Simple web design, web development, information technology, & technical communication

Articles and resources for web developers and the average person. Topics include web development, web design, technical writing and communication, and all aspects of information technology.

Using comments in PHP

Originally published on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

If you’ve ever had to work through another programmer’s code to complete a project, you probably understand the importance of commenting code. There’s nothing worse then trying to piece together how an application works while weeding through non-descript variables and functions. Even if for your own use, nicely commented code can be a tremendous timesaver when you leave a project and return to it down the road.

PHP is unique in that if offer several ways to comment code. There are 2 options for single-line commenting, and another option for multi-line commenting.

Single-line comments in PHP

There are two different ways to insert single-line comments in PHP. One is based on the Unix style for shell scripts, while the other is based on comments in the C++ programming environment.

<?php
# This is a comment in PHP using the Unix style

// This is a comment in PHP using the C++ style
?>

Which style should you use? Technically speaking, there’s really no benefit or drawback to either. It’s simply a matter of preference.

Multi-line comments in PHP

What if you want to insert a large block of text that shouldn’t be interpreted as code or displayed on screen? This is the perfect opportunity to utilize a multi-line comment. Just like the 2 single-line comment styles, PHP’s multi-line comment is derived from another programming language—in this case, C.

<?php
/*
This is a multi-line comment in PHP.
The style for mult-line comments in PHP is derived from the C programming language.
Like all comments, none of this will be displayed on screen.
*/
?>

This article was written by Christopher Jason and published on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

One Response to “Using comments in PHP”

  1. Sports Card Forum Says:
    October 31st, 2007 at 1:37 pm

    Using the C style of commenting should NEVER be used. I have been to quite a few php conferences and have had the chance to ask many questions directly to the people who develope php. C style comments may be depreciated in the future. If they are and you upgrade you will have alot of fixing to do.

Add a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Articles By Category

Stay Updated