Docstrings and Comments in Python

Docstrings is used for documenting the code in python. Doc strings are literal strings at the beginning used for documenting a module or function . We use triple quoted strings for single line and multi line documentation strings and even add more detail.

Paste the below code into a file named docstring.py

"""

   Reads a number and returns even or odd

   

    Usage:

        python docstring.py <number>

"""

import sys

def even_or_odd(n):

    """

        Evaluates if a passed number is even or odd

        

    Args:

        Takes one argument as number

    Return:

        returns the result even or odd

    """

    if(n%2 == 0):

        print("Even")

    else:

        print("Odd")

def main(x):

    """Calls even_or_odd function passing the argument

    """

    even_or_odd(x)

    

if "__name__" == "__main__":

    main(sys.argv[1])

Download the code from GitHub

After copying the above code into a file, import the file and run help(docstring) we will see a nice documentation of our module.

Comments in python start with hash symbol #. Often in code we need to explain what approach is followed to achieve the required functionality.

Begin with # symbol and continue till end of line

if "__name__" == "__main__":

    main(sys.argv[1]) # passing a command line argument