What is the correct way put multiple lines in a param tag for a Javadoc?

Question

I can't find any information on whether or not it is ok to have multiple lines of info in a javadoc param. I'm making a chess engine and I want to be able to parse a string to generate a board. Is it ok to do it as I've done below?

/**
 * Creates a board based on a string.
 * @param boardString The string to be parsed. Must be of the format:
 *      "8x8\n" +
 *      "br,bn,bb,bq,bk,bb,bn,br\n" +
 *      "bp,bp,bp,bp,bp,bp,bp,bp\n" +
 *      "  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  \n" +
 *      "  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  \n" +
 *      "  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  \n" +
 *      "  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  \n" +
 *      "wp,wp,wp,wp,wp,wp,wp,wp\n" +
 *      "wr,wn,wb,wq,wk,wb,wn,wr"
 */

Edit: This has been marked as a duplicate. The reason I believe it is not a duplicate is because the other question is simply about creating a multiline javadoc comment, while this one is about having multiple lines as part of the param argument.

Answer 1

I'd say that the way you've done it is fine (Edit: Oh, maybe not. Looks like you need a good serving of <pre> if you want to maintain that particular formatting. Fortunately, the answer still works!).

Consider an expert-grade example from Apache Commons BooleanUtils...

/**
 * <p>Converts an Integer to a boolean specifying the conversion values.</p>
 * 
 * <pre>
 *   BooleanUtils.toBoolean(new Integer(0), new Integer(1), new Integer(0)) = false
 *   BooleanUtils.toBoolean(new Integer(1), new Integer(1), new Integer(0)) = true
 *   BooleanUtils.toBoolean(new Integer(2), new Integer(1), new Integer(2)) = false
 *   BooleanUtils.toBoolean(new Integer(2), new Integer(2), new Integer(0)) = true
 *   BooleanUtils.toBoolean(null, null, new Integer(0))                     = true
 * </pre>
 *
 * @param value  the Integer to convert
 * @param trueValue  the value to match for <code>true</code>,
 *  may be <code>null</code>
 * @param falseValue  the value to match for <code>false</code>,
 *  may be <code>null</code>
 * @return <code>true</code> or <code>false</code>
 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if no match
 */
public static boolean toBoolean(Integer value, Integer trueValue, Integer falseValue) {
    if (value == null) {
        if (trueValue == null) {
            return true;
        } else if (falseValue == null) {
            return false;
        }
    } else if (value.equals(trueValue)) {
        return true;
    } else if (value.equals(falseValue)) {
        return false;
    }
    // no match
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("The Integer did not match either specified value");
}

Just truncate your long lines and carry on until you need the next param (or you're otherwise done). Javadoc also supports a lot of HTML tags, such as <pre> for pre-formatted text. That's useful when your documentation is spacing-sensitive (including newlines).