Comments in PHP
A comment in PHP code is a line that is not executed as a part of the program. Its only purpose is to be read by someone who is looking at the code.
Comments can be used to:
- Let others understand your code
- Remind yourself of what you did - Most programmers have experienced coming back to their own work a year or two later and having to re-figure out what they did. Comments can remind you of what you were thinking when you wrote the code
PHP supports several ways of commenting:
Example
Syntax for single-line comments:
Try it Yourself »
Example
Syntax for multiple-line comments:
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Example
Using comments to leave out parts of the code:
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Using Comments in PHP
Comments in PHP are similar to comments that are used in HTML. The PHP comment syntax always begins with a special character sequence and all text that appears between the start of the comment and the end will be ignored.
In HTML a comment's main purpose is to serve as a note to you, the web developer or to others who may view your website's source code. However, PHP's comments are different in that they will not be displayed to your visitors. The only way to view PHP comments is to open the PHP file for editing. This makes PHP comments only useful to PHP programmers.
In case you forgot what an HTML comment looked like, see our example below.
HTML Code:
PHP Comment Syntax: Single Line Comment
While there is only one type of comment in HTML, PHP has two types. The first type we will discuss is the single line comment. The single line comment tells the interpreter to ignore everything that occurs on that line to the right of the comment. To do a single line comment type "//" or "#" and all text to the right will be ignored by PHP interpreter.