Multi-Line Comments in Ruby?

Question

How can I comment multiple lines in Ruby?

Answer 1

Here is an example :

=begin 
print "Give me a number:"
number = gets.chomp.to_f

total = number * 10
puts  "The total value is : #{total}"

=end

Everything you place in between =begin and =end will be treated as a comment regardless of how many lines of code it contains between.

Note: Make sure there is no space between = and begin:

• Correct: =begin
• Wrong: = begin

Answer 2

In case someone is looking for a way to comment multiple lines in a html template in Ruby on Rails, there might be a problem with =begin =end, for instance:

<%
=begin
%>
  ... multiple HTML lines to comment out
  <%= image_tag("image.jpg") %>
<%
=end
%>

will fail because of the %> closing the image_tag.

In this case, maybe it is arguable whether this is commenting out or not, but I prefer to enclose the undesired section with an "if false" block:

<% if false %>
  ... multiple HTML lines to comment out
  <%= image_tag("image.jpg") %>
<% end %>

This will work.

Answer 3

Despite the existence of =begin and =end, the normal and a more correct way to comment is to use #'s on each line. If you read the source of any ruby library, you will see that this is the way multi-line comments are done in almost all cases.

Answer 4

=begin comment line 1 comment line 2 =end make sure =begin and =end is the first thing on that line (no spaces)

Answer 5

=begin
(some code here)
=end

and

# This code
# on multiple lines
# is commented out

are both correct. The advantage of the first type of comment is editability—it's easier to uncomment because fewer characters are deleted. The advantage of the second type of comment is readability—reading the code line by line, it's much easier to tell that a particular line has been commented out. Your call but think about who's coming after you and how easy it is for them to read and maintain.

Answer 6

Using either:

=begin
This
is
a
comment
block
=end

or

# This
# is
# a
# comment
# block

are the only two currently supported by rdoc, which is a good reason to use only these I think.