Auto generate function documentation in Visual Studio

Question

I was wondering if there is a way (hopefully keyboard shortcut) to create auto generate function headers in visual studio.

Example:

Private Function Foo(ByVal param1 As String, ByVal param2 As Integer) 

And it would automagically become something like this...

'----------------------------------  'Pre:  'Post: 'Author:  'Date:  'Param1 (String):  'Param2 (Integer):  'Summary:  Private Function Foo(ByVal param1 As String, ByVal param2 As Integer) 

Answer 1

Make that "three single comment-markers"

In C# it's ///

which as default spits out:

/// <summary> ///  /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> 

Here's some tips on editing VS templates.

Answer 2

GhostDoc!

Right-click on the function, select "Document this" and

private bool FindTheFoo(int numberOfFoos) 

becomes

/// <summary> /// Finds the foo. /// </summary> /// <param name="numberOfFoos">The number of foos.</param> /// <returns></returns> private bool FindTheFoo(int numberOfFoos) 

(yes, it is all autogenerated).

It has support for C#, VB.NET and C/C++. It is per default mapped to Ctrl+Shift+D.

Remember: you should add information beyond the method signature to the documentation. Don't just stop with the autogenerated documentation. The value of a tool like this is that it automatically generates the documentation that can be extracted from the method signature, so any information you add should be new information.

That being said, I personally prefer when methods are totally selfdocumenting, but sometimes you will have coding-standards that mandate outside documentation, and then a tool like this will save you a lot of braindead typing.