Java documentation comment(Javadoc)
In this chapter you will learn:
- What is javadoc for
- Syntax for javadoc
- Example - Java documentation comment, Javadoc
- Javadoc tag list
- Example - More javadoc tags
Description
Javadoc Documentation comment is used to produce an HTML file that documents your program. In short we usually call Java documentation comment javadoc.
Syntax
A Javadoc comment occupies one or more lines of source code.
The documentation comment begins with a /**
and ends with a */
.
Everything from /** through */ is ignored by the compiler.
Example
The following example demonstrates a Javadoc comment:
/** /*from www.jav a 2s. c om*/
* Application entry point
*
* @param args array of command-line arguments passed to this method
*/
public static void main(String[] args)
{
// TODO code application logic here
}
This example begins with a Javadoc comment that describes the main() method.
/**
and */
contains a description of the method,
which could include HTML tags such as
<p>
, <code>
and /</code>
,
and the @param
Javadoc tag (an @-prefixed instruction).
Tag list
The following list identifies several commonly used tags:
@author
identifies the source code's author.@deprecated
identifies a source code entity that should no longer be used.@param
identifies one of a method's parameters.@see
provides a see-also reference.@since
identifies the software release where the entity first originated.@return
identifies the kind of value that the method returns.
Example 2
The following code has more documentation comments
/**//from ww w. j ava 2 s .c o m
* A simple class for introducing a Java application.
*
* @author yourName
*/
public class HelloWorld {
/**
* Application entry point
*
* @param args
* array of command-line arguments passed to this method
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
}
We can extract these documentation comments into a set of HTML files by using the JDK's javadoc tool, as follows:
javadoc
command defaults to generating HTML-based documentation for public classes and
public/protected members of these classes.
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What you will learn in the next chapter: