How to comment/uncomment in HTML code

Question

Often while coding view templates in html, my habit of adding some helpful comments causes lots of time-consuming effort while testing.

Consider this code...

<!-- Here starts the sidebar --> <div id="sidebar"> .... </div>  <!-- Here starts the main contents pane --> <div id="main-contents"> ... </div>  <!-- Here starts the footer --> <div id="footer"> ... </div> 

Now, if I have to hide out some portion of the view template, in case of php I would just select the desired code and put single-line comments (using a shortcut key most of the times).

However, in html code, where only the block comments work, I end-up removing all the closing comment tags (-->) till the position I want the commenting to occur - something like this...

<!-- Here starts the sidebar <div id="sidebar"> .... </div>  <!-- Here starts the main contents pane <div id="main-contents"> ... </div>  <!-- Here starts the footer <div id="footer"> ... </div>--> 

Then when I'm done testing I have to go through the agony of putting back those closing tags.

Is there a better and time saving way of block commenting in HTML?

Answer 1

Yes, to comment structural metadata out,

Using <script>/* ... */</script> in .html

Comment out large sections of HTML (Comment Out Block)

my personal way in a .html file is opening: <script>/* and close it with */</script>

<script>/* hiding code go here */</script>

Is a workaround to the problem since is not HTML.

Considering your code in .html...

  <!-- Here starts the sidebar -->   <div id="sidebar">   ....   </div>  <script>/*   <!-- Here starts the main contents pane -->   <div id="main-contents">   ...   </div>    <!-- Here starts the footer -->   <div id="footer">   ...   </div> */</script> 

And in a case is HTML inside PHP file using comment tag <?/* or <?php /* and close it with */?> . Remember that the file must be .php extension and don't work in .html.

<?/* hiding code go here */?>

Considering your code in .php...

  <!-- Here starts the sidebar -->   <div id="sidebar">   ....   </div>  <?/*   <!-- Here starts the main contents pane -->   <div id="main-contents">   ...   </div>    <!-- Here starts the footer -->   <div id="footer">   ...   </div> */?> 

Is worth nothing that is not HTML but a common developer practice is to comment out parts of metadata so that it will not be rendered and/or executed in the browser. In HTML, commenting out multiple lines can be time-consuming. It is useful to exclude pieces of template structural metadata containing comments, CSS or code and systematically commenting out to find the source of an error. It is considered a bad practice to comment blocks out and it is recommended to use a version control system. The attribute "type" is required in HTML4 and optional in HTML5.

Answer 2

Depends on the extension. If it's .html, you can use <? to start and ?> to end a comment. That's really the only alternative that I can think of. http://jsfiddle.net/SuEAW/