/* (non-javadoc) meaning [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Does “/* (non-javadoc)” have a well-understood meaning?

What does the following statements mean?

    /* (non-Javadoc)      *       * Standard class loader method to load a class and resolve it.      *       * @see java.lang.ClassLoader#loadClass(java.lang.String)      */     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked") 

Answer 1

Javadoc looks for comments that start with /**. By tradition, method comments that are not intended to be part of the java docs start with "/* (non-Javadoc)" (at least when your dev environment is Eclipse).

As an aside, avoid using multi-line comments inside methods. For example, avoid this:

public void iterateEdges() {   int i = 0;    /*     * Repeat once for every side of the polygon.    */   while (i < 4)   {   }  } 

The following is preferred:

public void iterateEdges() {   int i = 0;    // Repeat once for every side of the polygon.   while (i < 4)   {     ++i;   }  } 

The reason is that you open the possibility to comment out the entire method:

/* public void iterateEdges() {   int i = 0;    // Repeat once for every side of the polygon.   while (i < 4)   {      ++i;   }  } */  public void iterateEdges() {   // For each square edge.   for (int index = 0; index < 4; ++index)   {   } } 

Now you can still see the old method's behaviour while implementing the new method. This is also useful when debugging (to simplify the code).