A block comment in Python is a type of comment that spans multiple lines. It is used to provide a detailed explanation or documentation of a block of code. Block comments are often used to comment out large blocks of code or to provide explanations and usage instructions for functions and modules.
They are created by using triple-quoted string literals (either single quotes or double quotes) at the beginning and end of the comment. Anything contained within these triple quotes will be ignored by the interpreter and will not be executed. For example:
Block Comment in Python:
""" This is a block comment that spans multiple lines.
It can be used to comment out large blocks of code,
or to provide explanations and usage instructions for functions and modules. """
In this example, the text “This is a block comment that spans multiple lines. It can be used to comment out large blocks of code, or to provide explanations and usage instructions for functions and modules.” is a block comment that would be ignored by the interpreter when the code is executed.
Block comments are often used for providing documentation for a function or module, such as providing information about the function’s arguments, return value, and any exceptions it may raise. This is known as docstrings.
FAQs:
1. How do you comment out multiple lines in Python?
In Python, you can comment out multiple lines by using the “#” symbol at the beginning of each line you want to comment out. For example:
# This is a comment
# This is another comment
# This is a third comment
Alternatively, you can use triple quotes to comment out multiple lines. For example:
"""
This is a comment
This is another comment
This is a third comment
"""
2. python comment multiple lines shortcut.
In most Python IDEs, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + / to comment out multiple selected lines at once. This will add the “#” symbol to the beginning of each selected line, effectively commenting them out. The shortcut works in most IDEs including IDLE, PyCharm, Sublime, Visual Studio Code and Jupyter Notebook.
If you are using Jupyter Notebook, you can also use Shift + Enter to add comments.
Please note that this shortcut may vary depending on your operating system or the specific IDE you are using.
