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HTML - Comments
HTML comments are non-executable lines of code that do not display on the webpage
and are used to add notes or explanations. It is a good practice to add comments into
your HTML code, especially in complex documents, to indicate sections of a document
and any other notes to anyone looking at the code.
HTML comments are completely ignored by web browsers, so they don't affect how
your page looks or works.
HTML comments help you and others understand your code and increase code
readability and are placed in between <!-- ... --> tags. So, any content placed with <!-
-... --> tags will be treated as a comment and will be completely ignored by the
browser.
Example of HTML Comments
Here's an example of HTML comments:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<!-- Document Header Starts -->
<title>This is document title</title>
</head>
<!-- Document Header Ends -->
<body>
<p>Document content goes here.....</p>
</body>
</html>
If you run the above program, it displays the sentence "Document content goes
here....." neglecting the content given as a part of comments.
Valid vs Invalid Comments
Comments in HTML have certain rules that you need to follow. Below is the list of rules
−
Comments do not support nesting, which means a comment cannot be put inside
another comment.
You can't have the sequence "--" within a comment, except to close it.
You must also make sure that there are no spaces in the start-of-comment
string.
Example
Here, the given comment is a valid comment and will be wiped off by the browser.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Valid Comment Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<!-- This is valid comment -->
<p>Document content goes here.....</p>
</body>
</html>
But the following line is not a valid comment and will be displayed by the browser. This
is because there is a space between the left angle bracket and the exclamation mark.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Invalid Comment Example</title>
</head>
<body>
< !-- This is not a valid comment -->
<p>Document content goes here.....</p>
</body>
</html>
Multiline Comments
You can comment multiple lines by the special beginning tag <!-- and ending tag -->
placed before the first line and end of the last line as shown in the given example
below.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Multiline Comments</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--
This is a multiline comment and it can
span through as many as lines you like.
-->
<p>Document content goes here.....</p>
</body>
</html>
Conditional Comments
Conditional comments are a feature specific to Internet Explorer (IE) on Windows, but
they are ignored by other browsers. They are supported from Explorer 5 onwards, and
you can use them to give conditional instructions to different versions of IE.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Conditional Comments</title>
<!--[if IE 6]>
Special instructions for IE 6 here
<![endif]-->
</head>
<body>
<p>Document content goes here.....</p>
</body>
</html>
These tags are used in the situation where you need to apply different style sheets
based on different versions of Internet Explorer; in such a situation, conditional
comments will be helpful.
Comments Using <comment> Tag
There are few browsers that support the <comment> tag to comment on a part of
HTML code.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Using Comment Tag</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This is <comment>not</comment> Internet Explorer.</p>
</body>
</html>
Commenting Script Code
If an HTML document contains JavaScript or VbScript and you're opening this page on
the browser, some old versions of Browser may not work properly. It is recommended
to put that script code inside proper HTML comments so that old browsers can work
properly.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Commenting Script Code</title>
<script>
<!-- [Link]("Hello World!") -->
</script>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello , World!</p>
</body>
</html>
Commenting Style Sheets
To comment a CSS script within a <style> tag, we need to use the /* symbol as a
starting point and the */ symbol as an ending.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Commenting Style Sheets</title>
<style>
/* commenting in stylesheet
.example {
border: 1px solid #4a7d49;
} */
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="example">Hello , World!</div>
</body>
</html>