How to include multiline comments in Julia

Including commentsComments are lines of text that are ignored by the compiler or interpreter and are meant to provide explanations or notes about the code. in your code is considered good practice in the developing world. It enhances readability and signifies the maintainability of your code by providing a clear explanation to the reader about the function of the code.

When writing code in Julia, it's equally important to include comments as it is in any other programming language. Julia supports single-line comments which is applicable in a pretty common way as in other languages.

We can include single-line comments using the # symbol and that line will be ignored by the compiler. However, Julia also provides a way to include multiline comments for the user.

The inclusion of multiline comments reduces the clutter in your code and allows the developer to fully convey the code's function in a paragraph. Thus, eliminating any challenges regarding the reusability and maintainability of the code.

In Julia, multiline comments are enclosed between the #= and =# symbols. Consequently, any piece of code or explanation written between these two symbols would be treated as a comment and thus would be ignored in the compilation by Julia's interpreter.

On the other hand, single-line comments can be written after the # symbol, just like in C++. However, enclosing the text between #= and =# symbols allow the inclusion of multiline comments.

Example

We can further simplify this concept by using an example. So, you can get a better understanding of how the multiline comments work in Julia.

In the example above, we have a multiline comment starting with the #= symbol.

After the #= symbol, we can write any comment we want, whether it is the explanation of the code, the environment for running the code, or the libraries that need to be imported before compilation.

After providing the explanation needed, we can enclose the multiline comment using the =# symbol. After that, we can continue writing the normal code, which will be read and compiled by Julia's interpreter.

Nested multiline comments in Julia

Nested multiline comments mean injecting multiline comments within another multiline comment. While some programming languages allow this feature, Julia's interpreter will produce a syntax error if you attempt to nest multiline comments using the #= and =# symbols.

Substitute

As Julia doesn't support nested multiline comments, you can achieve a pretty similar commenting effect by creating a block of comments as shown below.

While this approach doesn't provide the same visual distinction as nested multiline comments, it allows you to achieve a similar effect by including multiple single-line comments within the outer comment block.

Conclusion

Comments are essential for code documentation and maintaining the readability of the user. Multiline comments in Julia allow the developer to elaborate on the function of the code and explain the environment needed for its working.