Syntax Hack – single-character block comment toggles

tl:dr; Use //*/ to terminate block comments, then use /* and //* to toggle the block in and out of code.

So this is a small trick but it’s really useful — a syntax hack at the same kind of level of a keyboard shortcut.

Most C-syntax langauges use line comments and block comments like so;


// line comment

/*
block comment
*/

Block comments mask more code, but they tend to be ‘fiddly’ to put into your code and take out. This can be a pain when you have a block you’re developing and you want to comment it in and out regularly;


/*
... big code block here
... which goes on for a while
... and you want to toggle it
... in and out regularly.
*/

So if you change your terminating symbol to //*/, an interesting thing happens; it functions as the terminator of a block comment inside a block comment, but a line comment otherwise. This means you can toggle code in and out by putting a single extra slash on the start of the block comment;


/*
code here commented out
//*/

but


//*
code here is now active
//*/

So there is it. A single-character togle of a block comment.

2 thoughts on “Syntax Hack – single-character block comment toggles

  1. You can also toggle between *two* blocks of code like this:

    //*
    code here is now active
    /*/
    code here is inactive
    //*/

    Delete the first slash to toggle the active code to the second section of code. Great for switching between production code and experimental new code as you test a bug fix or new feature.

    • That is great! Hadn’t thought of that, but the ‘swinging’ nature of ‘/*/’ is a very clever trick.

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