How to comment out a block of code in Python

Question

Is there a mechanism to comment out large blocks of Python code   Right now  the only ways I can see of commenting out code are to either start every line with a    or to enclose the code in triple quotes        The problem with these is that inserting   before every line is cumbersome and     makes the string I want to use as a comment show up in generated documentation   After reading all comments  the answer seems to be  No

User · Answer

In Eclipse using PyDev  you can select a code block and press Ctrl

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The only cure I know for this is a good editor  Sorry

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At least in VIM you can select the first column of text you want to insert using Block Visual mode  CTRL V in non-windows VIMs  and then prepend a   before each line using this sequence   I  lt esc gt    In Block Visual mode I moves to insert mode with the cursor before the block on its first line   The inserted text is copied before each line in the block

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Triple quotes are OK to me  You can use     foo     for docstrings and     bar     for comments or vice-versa to make the code more readable

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Python does not have such a mechanism  Prepend a   to each line to block comment  For more information see PEP 8  Most Python IDEs support a mechanism to do the block-commenting-with-pound-signs automatically for you  For example  in IDLE on my machine  it s Alt 3 and Alt 4   Don t use triple-quotes  as you discovered  this is for documentation strings not block comments  although it has a similar effect  If you re just commenting things out temporarily  this is fine as a temporary measure

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Yes  there is  depending on your editor   In PyDev  and in Aptana Studio with PyDev     Ctrl   4 - comment selected block Ctrl   5 - uncomment selected block

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The only mechanism to comment out Python code  understood as code ignored by the interpreter  is the     As you say  you can also use string literals  that are not ignored by the interpreter  but can be completely irrelevant for the program execution

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In Eclipse   PyDev  Python block commenting is similar to Eclipse Java block commenting  select the lines you want to comment and use Ctrl     to comment  To uncomment a commented block  do the same thing

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Use a nice editor like SciTe  select your code  press Ctrl   Q and done   If you don t have an editor that supports block comments you can use a triple quoted string at the start and the end of your code block to  effectively  comment it out  It is not the best practice though

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Hide the triple quotes in a context that won t be mistaken for a docstring  eg          statements        and None   or   if False         statements

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Another editor-based solution  text  rectangles  in Emacs    Highlight the code you want to comment out  then C-x-r-t    To un-comment the code  highlight  then C-x-r-k  I use this all-day  every day    Assigned to hot-keys  of course     This and powerful regex search replace is the reason I tolerate Emacs s other  eccentricities

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I use Notepad   on a Windows machine  select your code  type CTRL-K  To uncomment you select code and press Ctrl   Shift   K   Incidentally  Notepad   works nicely as a Python editor  With auto-completion  code folding  syntax highlighting  and much more  And it s free as in speech and as in beer

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In JetBrains PyCharm on Mac use Command     to comment uncomment selected block of code  On Windows  use CTRL

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In vi    Go to top of block and mark it with letter a  Go to bottom of block and mark it with letter b   Then do    a  b s

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comm     Junk  or working code  that I need to comment        You can replace comm by a variable of your choice that is perhaps shorter  easy to touch-type  and you know does not  and will not  occur in your programs  Examples  xxx  oo  null  nil

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M-x comment-region  in Emacs  Python mode

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On Eric4 there is an easy way  select a block  type Ctrl M to comment the whole block or Ctrl alt M to uncomment

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The only way you can do this without triple quotes is to add an   if False    And then indent all your code   Note that the code will still need to have proper syntax     Many Python IDEs can add   for you on each selected line  and remove them when un-commenting too  Likewise  if you use vi or Emacs you can create a macro to do this for you for a block of code

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In Visual Studio using the Python Tools for Visual Studio  blocks can be commented out by Ctrl K  Ctrl C and uncommented by Ctrl K  Ctrl U

[python] How to comment out a block of code in Python

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