Why doesn t Python have multiline comments

Question

OK  I m aware that triple-quotes strings can serve as multiline comments  For example      Hello  I am a     multiline comment      and      Hello  I am a     multiline comment      But technically speaking these are strings  correct   I ve googled and read the Python style guide  but I was unable to find a technical answer to why there is no formal implementation of multiline        type of comments  I have no problem using triple quotes  but I am a little curious as to what led to this design decision

User · Answer

I remember reading about one guy who would put his multi-line comments into a triple-quoted variable:

x = '''
This is my
super-long mega-comment.
Wow there are a lot of lines
going on here!
'''

This does take up a bit of memory, but it gives you multi-line comment functionality, and plus most editors will highlight the syntax for you :)

It's also easy to comment out code by simply wrapping it with

x = '''

and

'''

User · Answer

Assume that they were just considered unnecessary  Since it s so easy to just type  a comment  multiline comments can just consist of many single line comments   For HTML  on the other hand  there s more of a need for multiliners  It s harder to keep typing  lt  --comments like this-- gt

User · Answer

Multi-line comments are easily breakable   What if you have the following in a simple calculator program   operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here   Try to comment that with a multi-line comment      operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here      Oops  your string contains the end comment delimiter

User · Answer

This likely goes back to the core concept that there should be one obvious way to do a task   Additional comment styles add unnecessary complications and could decrease readability

User · Answer

Multi-line comments are easily breakable   What if you have the following in a simple calculator program   operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here   Try to comment that with a multi-line comment      operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here      Oops  your string contains the end comment delimiter

User · Answer

This is just a guess    but  Because they are strings  they have some semantic value  the compiler doesn t get rid of them   therefore it makes sense for them to be used as docstrings  They actually become part of the AST  so extracting documentation becomes easier

User · Answer

This   is   a    multi-line   comment   Use comment block or search and replace  s     g  in your editor to achieve this

User · Answer

This   is   a    multi-line   comment   Use comment block or search and replace  s     g  in your editor to achieve this

User · Answer

I solved this by downloading a macro for my text editor  TextPad  that lets me highlight lines and it then inserts   at the first of each line   A similar macro removes the   s   Some may ask why multiline is necessary but it comes in handy when you re trying to  turn off  a block of code for debugging purposes

User · Answer

Besides  multiline comments are a bitch  Sorry to say  but regardless of the language  I don t use them for anything else than debugging purposes  Say you have code like this   void someFunction         Something       Some comments       Something else     Then you find out that there is something in your code you can t fix with the debugger  so you start manually debugging it by commenting out smaller and smaller chuncks of code with theese multiline comments  This would then give the function   void someFunction            Something       Comments       Something more       This is really irritating

User · Answer

For anyone else looking for multi-line comments in Python - using the triple quote format can have some problematic consequences  as I ve just learned the hard way  Consider this   this dict          name    Bob        This is a multiline comment in the middle of a dictionary           species    Cat      The multi-line comment will be tucked into the next string  messing up the   species  key  Better to just use   for comments

User · Answer

I solved this by downloading a macro for my text editor  TextPad  that lets me highlight lines and it then inserts   at the first of each line   A similar macro removes the   s   Some may ask why multiline is necessary but it comes in handy when you re trying to  turn off  a block of code for debugging purposes

User · Answer

I remember reading about one guy who would put his multi-line comments into a triple-quoted variable:

x = '''
This is my
super-long mega-comment.
Wow there are a lot of lines
going on here!
'''

This does take up a bit of memory, but it gives you multi-line comment functionality, and plus most editors will highlight the syntax for you :)

It's also easy to comment out code by simply wrapping it with

x = '''

and

'''

User · Answer

Besides  multiline comments are a bitch  Sorry to say  but regardless of the language  I don t use them for anything else than debugging purposes  Say you have code like this   void someFunction         Something       Some comments       Something else     Then you find out that there is something in your code you can t fix with the debugger  so you start manually debugging it by commenting out smaller and smaller chuncks of code with theese multiline comments  This would then give the function   void someFunction            Something       Comments       Something more       This is really irritating

User · Answer

Assume that they were just considered unnecessary  Since it s so easy to just type  a comment  multiline comments can just consist of many single line comments   For HTML  on the other hand  there s more of a need for multiliners  It s harder to keep typing  lt  --comments like this-- gt

User · Answer

To comment out a block of code in the Pycharm IDE    Code   Comment with Line Comment Windows or Linux  Ctrl     Mac OS  Command

User · Answer

There should only be one way to do a thing  is contradicted by the usage of multiline strings and single line strings or switch case and if  different form of loops  Multiline comments are a pretty common feature and lets face it the multiline string comment is a hack with negative sideffects  I have seen lots of code doing the multiline comment trick and even editors use it  But I guess every language has its quirks where the devs insist on never fixing it  I know such quirks from the java side as well  which have been open since the late 90s  never to be fixed

User · Answer

Multi-line comments are easily breakable   What if you have the following in a simple calculator program   operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here   Try to comment that with a multi-line comment      operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here      Oops  your string contains the end comment delimiter

User · Answer

Well  the triple-quotes are used as multiline comments in docstrings  And   comments are used as inline comments and people get use to it   Most of script languages don t have multiline comments either  Maybe that s the cause   See PEP 0008  section Comments  And see if your Python editor offers some keyboard shortcut for block commenting  Emacs supports it  as well as Eclipse  presumably most of decent IDEs does

User · Answer

From The Zen of Python   There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it

User · Answer

This is just a guess    but  Because they are strings  they have some semantic value  the compiler doesn t get rid of them   therefore it makes sense for them to be used as docstrings  They actually become part of the AST  so extracting documentation becomes easier

User · Answer

Personally my comment style in say Java is like        My multi-line comment in Java       So having single-line only comments isn t such a bad thing if your style is typical to the preceding example because in comparison you d have      My multi-line comment in Python     VB NET is also a language with single-line only commenting  and personally I find it annoying as comments end up looking less likes comments and more like some kind of quote      This is a VB NET example     Single-line-only comments end up having less character-usage than multi-line comments  and are less likely to be escaped by some dodgy characters in a regex statement perhaps   I d tend to agree with Ned though

User · Answer

Multiline comments using IDLE on    Mac nbsp OS nbsp X  after code selection  comment a block of code with Ctrl 3 and uncomment using Ctrl 4  Windows  after code selection   comment a block of code with Ctrl Alt 3 and uncomment using Ctrl At 4

User · Answer

This likely goes back to the core concept that there should be one obvious way to do a task   Additional comment styles add unnecessary complications and could decrease readability

User · Answer

Because the   convention is a common one  and there really isn t anything you can do with a multiline comment that you can t with a  -sign comment   It s a historical accident  like the ancestry of           comments going back to PL I

User · Answer

Triple-quoted text should NOT be considered multi-line comments  by convention  they are docstrings  They should describe what your code does and how to use it  but not for things like commenting out blocks of code     According to Guido  multiline comments in Python are just contiguous single-line comments  search for  block comments     To comment blocks of code  I sometimes use the following pattern   if False        A bunch of code

User · Answer

Personally my comment style in say Java is like        My multi-line comment in Java       So having single-line only comments isn t such a bad thing if your style is typical to the preceding example because in comparison you d have      My multi-line comment in Python     VB NET is also a language with single-line only commenting  and personally I find it annoying as comments end up looking less likes comments and more like some kind of quote      This is a VB NET example     Single-line-only comments end up having less character-usage than multi-line comments  and are less likely to be escaped by some dodgy characters in a regex statement perhaps   I d tend to agree with Ned though

User · Answer

There should only be one way to do a thing  is contradicted by the usage of multiline strings and single line strings or switch case and if  different form of loops  Multiline comments are a pretty common feature and lets face it the multiline string comment is a hack with negative sideffects  I have seen lots of code doing the multiline comment trick and even editors use it  But I guess every language has its quirks where the devs insist on never fixing it  I know such quirks from the java side as well  which have been open since the late 90s  never to be fixed

User · Answer

I doubt you ll get a better answer than   Guido didn t feel the need for multi-line comments     Guido has tweeted about this      Python tip  You can use multi-line strings as multi-line comments  Unless used as docstrings  they generate no code   -

User · Answer

This likely goes back to the core concept that there should be one obvious way to do a task   Additional comment styles add unnecessary complications and could decrease readability

User · Answer

From The Zen of Python   There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it

User · Answer

Triple-quoted text should NOT be considered multi-line comments  by convention  they are docstrings  They should describe what your code does and how to use it  but not for things like commenting out blocks of code     According to Guido  multiline comments in Python are just contiguous single-line comments  search for  block comments     To comment blocks of code  I sometimes use the following pattern   if False        A bunch of code

User · Answer

Because the   convention is a common one  and there really isn t anything you can do with a multiline comment that you can t with a  -sign comment   It s a historical accident  like the ancestry of           comments going back to PL I

User · Answer

I doubt you ll get a better answer than   Guido didn t feel the need for multi-line comments     Guido has tweeted about this      Python tip  You can use multi-line strings as multi-line comments  Unless used as docstrings  they generate no code   -

User · Answer

I doubt you ll get a better answer than   Guido didn t feel the need for multi-line comments     Guido has tweeted about this      Python tip  You can use multi-line strings as multi-line comments  Unless used as docstrings  they generate no code   -

User · Answer

Multiline comments using IDLE on    Mac nbsp OS nbsp X  after code selection  comment a block of code with Ctrl 3 and uncomment using Ctrl 4  Windows  after code selection   comment a block of code with Ctrl Alt 3 and uncomment using Ctrl At 4

User · Answer

From The Zen of Python   There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it

User · Answer

For anyone else looking for multi-line comments in Python - using the triple quote format can have some problematic consequences  as I ve just learned the hard way  Consider this   this dict          name    Bob        This is a multiline comment in the middle of a dictionary           species    Cat      The multi-line comment will be tucked into the next string  messing up the   species  key  Better to just use   for comments

User · Answer

Assume that they were just considered unnecessary  Since it s so easy to just type  a comment  multiline comments can just consist of many single line comments   For HTML  on the other hand  there s more of a need for multiliners  It s harder to keep typing  lt  --comments like this-- gt

User · Answer

Personally my comment style in say Java is like        My multi-line comment in Java       So having single-line only comments isn t such a bad thing if your style is typical to the preceding example because in comparison you d have      My multi-line comment in Python     VB NET is also a language with single-line only commenting  and personally I find it annoying as comments end up looking less likes comments and more like some kind of quote      This is a VB NET example     Single-line-only comments end up having less character-usage than multi-line comments  and are less likely to be escaped by some dodgy characters in a regex statement perhaps   I d tend to agree with Ned though

User · Answer

Triple-quoted text should NOT be considered multi-line comments  by convention  they are docstrings  They should describe what your code does and how to use it  but not for things like commenting out blocks of code     According to Guido  multiline comments in Python are just contiguous single-line comments  search for  block comments     To comment blocks of code  I sometimes use the following pattern   if False        A bunch of code

User · Answer

Multi-line comments are easily breakable   What if you have the following in a simple calculator program   operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here   Try to comment that with a multi-line comment      operation      print  Pick an operation    -       Get user input here      Oops  your string contains the end comment delimiter

User · Answer

Assume that they were just considered unnecessary  Since it s so easy to just type  a comment  multiline comments can just consist of many single line comments   For HTML  on the other hand  there s more of a need for multiliners  It s harder to keep typing  lt  --comments like this-- gt

User · Answer

To comment out a block of code in the Pycharm IDE    Code   Comment with Line Comment Windows or Linux  Ctrl     Mac OS  Command

User · Answer

Personally my comment style in say Java is like        My multi-line comment in Java       So having single-line only comments isn t such a bad thing if your style is typical to the preceding example because in comparison you d have      My multi-line comment in Python     VB NET is also a language with single-line only commenting  and personally I find it annoying as comments end up looking less likes comments and more like some kind of quote      This is a VB NET example     Single-line-only comments end up having less character-usage than multi-line comments  and are less likely to be escaped by some dodgy characters in a regex statement perhaps   I d tend to agree with Ned though

User · Answer

This   is   a    multi-line   comment   Use comment block or search and replace  s     g  in your editor to achieve this

User · Answer

I doubt you ll get a better answer than   Guido didn t feel the need for multi-line comments     Guido has tweeted about this      Python tip  You can use multi-line strings as multi-line comments  Unless used as docstrings  they generate no code   -

User · Answer

Because the   convention is a common one  and there really isn t anything you can do with a multiline comment that you can t with a  -sign comment   It s a historical accident  like the ancestry of           comments going back to PL I

User · Answer

This is just a guess    but  Because they are strings  they have some semantic value  the compiler doesn t get rid of them   therefore it makes sense for them to be used as docstrings  They actually become part of the AST  so extracting documentation becomes easier

User · Answer

Triple-quoted text should NOT be considered multi-line comments  by convention  they are docstrings  They should describe what your code does and how to use it  but not for things like commenting out blocks of code     According to Guido  multiline comments in Python are just contiguous single-line comments  search for  block comments     To comment blocks of code  I sometimes use the following pattern   if False        A bunch of code

User · Answer

Well  the triple-quotes are used as multiline comments in docstrings  And   comments are used as inline comments and people get use to it   Most of script languages don t have multiline comments either  Maybe that s the cause   See PEP 0008  section Comments  And see if your Python editor offers some keyboard shortcut for block commenting  Emacs supports it  as well as Eclipse  presumably most of decent IDEs does

User · Answer

This   is   a    multi-line   comment   Use comment block or search and replace  s     g  in your editor to achieve this

User · Answer

This likely goes back to the core concept that there should be one obvious way to do a task   Additional comment styles add unnecessary complications and could decrease readability

User · Answer

Well  the triple-quotes are used as multiline comments in docstrings  And   comments are used as inline comments and people get use to it   Most of script languages don t have multiline comments either  Maybe that s the cause   See PEP 0008  section Comments  And see if your Python editor offers some keyboard shortcut for block commenting  Emacs supports it  as well as Eclipse  presumably most of decent IDEs does

User · Answer

Well  the triple-quotes are used as multiline comments in docstrings  And   comments are used as inline comments and people get use to it   Most of script languages don t have multiline comments either  Maybe that s the cause   See PEP 0008  section Comments  And see if your Python editor offers some keyboard shortcut for block commenting  Emacs supports it  as well as Eclipse  presumably most of decent IDEs does

User · Answer

Because the   convention is a common one  and there really isn t anything you can do with a multiline comment that you can t with a  -sign comment   It s a historical accident  like the ancestry of           comments going back to PL I

User · Answer

This is just a guess    but  Because they are strings  they have some semantic value  the compiler doesn t get rid of them   therefore it makes sense for them to be used as docstrings  They actually become part of the AST  so extracting documentation becomes easier

User · Answer

Besides  multiline comments are a bitch  Sorry to say  but regardless of the language  I don t use them for anything else than debugging purposes  Say you have code like this   void someFunction         Something       Some comments       Something else     Then you find out that there is something in your code you can t fix with the debugger  so you start manually debugging it by commenting out smaller and smaller chuncks of code with theese multiline comments  This would then give the function   void someFunction            Something       Comments       Something more       This is really irritating

User · Answer

Besides  multiline comments are a bitch  Sorry to say  but regardless of the language  I don t use them for anything else than debugging purposes  Say you have code like this   void someFunction         Something       Some comments       Something else     Then you find out that there is something in your code you can t fix with the debugger  so you start manually debugging it by commenting out smaller and smaller chuncks of code with theese multiline comments  This would then give the function   void someFunction            Something       Comments       Something more       This is really irritating

User · Answer

From The Zen of Python   There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it

[python] Why doesn't Python have multiline comments?

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