C# coding style: comments

Question

Most C# style guides recommend against the /* ... */ commenting style, in favor of // or ///. Why is the former style to be avoided?

Answer 1

One thing that /* */ can do that // can't is to comment an interior portion of a line. I'll sometimes use this to comment a parameter to a method where something isn't obvious:

        point = ConvertFromLatLon(lat, lon, 0.0 /* height */ ) ;

In this case the constant, 0.0, being passed as the third parameter is representing height. Of course this might be better:

        double height = 0.0;
        point = ConvertFromLatLon(lat, lon, height) ;

(I'm more likely to use the /* */ intra-line temporarily, to just try out passing a specific value.)

Answer 2

I wouldn't say I have a strong view against either - but IMO the biggest issue is that /* and */ get messy if you have it nested, with the side effect that you can't copy/paste blocks around safely (quite).

You can too-easily end up with the wrong code commented/enabled, or can end up with it not compiling because you've ended up with a /* /* */ */.

If you copy a block of // around, no harm - just those lines remain commented.