How to write comments / documentation for variables / fields / lists in VS 2010?

Gero picture Gero · Oct 31, 2011 · Viewed 32.7k times · Source

There is

///<summary>
///This is summary for some class or method
///</summary>

documentation for classes or methods. But how to write this for simple variables or lists?

I use Visual Studio 2010 and when i hover over some list, property or what ever i would like to see some kind of summary (in that little tooltip) i have written to that specific thing.

///<doc>
///always use this list!
List<String> beer = new List<String>();

edit: ok, we have found out, that it works as usual as long u comment in your class but OUTSIDE a method or a function!!

Any way to document/comment within a method too?

public class BeerForall
{
    /// <summary>
    /// it works here
    /// </summary>
    public List<String> beer = new List<string>();

    public String giveBeer()
    {
        /// is not working, u can not comment
        /// <summary>
        /// test test, not working
        /// </summary>
        List<String> moreBeer = new List<string>();

        return "beer";
    }
}

Answer

Craig Stuntz picture Craig Stuntz · Oct 31, 2011

As others mentioned, you can't get IntelliSense for local vars. However: If your function is so large that a "regular" comment is not close enough to read near the place where you're using the var, then the right fix is to refactor the function -- break it up into multiple, smaller methods, with fewer vars. I don't think this feature should exist, as it would serve only to facilitate writing excessively large functions.