How to Create Comments

Even programmers and developers need to know what their programs are actually saying! They do this with comments, which you'll learn how to create in this lesson.
Rokit Smart programming cover Rokit Smart programming cover

This lesson works with:

Rokit Smart
Arduino
  • arduino
  • programming
  • Rokit Smart

Grade level:

3 - 12+

Approx. time required:

30 - 45 mins
CCSS

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7 Language Arts

Grade 3

Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7 Language Arts

Grade 4

Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.7 Language Arts

Grade 5

Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7 Language Arts

Grade 6

Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RST.6-8.7 Language Arts

Grade 8

Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).

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CCSS.Math.Practice.MP5 Math

Grade 3

Use appropriate tools strategically.

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Step 1

Briefing video

If you need more visuals for this lesson, watch the video!

Step 2

What's a comment?

After looking at Arduino, you might have noticed that sketches are in a bunch of different colors and wondered what they’re for. Anything in gray is a comment, and in the example code, one is highlighted below void setup() and the other is below void loop().

Comments are just descriptions of what the code does, and only people can see them. Even though comments are in your program, your computer and the microcontroller in the Smart Inventor Board don’t see them at all!

Comments
Step 3

Create a comment

Turning a line of code into a comment will take a maximum of four keystrokes!

  • Two slashes before a line of code will turn it into a comment, which you can see in the first two pictures. If you have some code and just want to test things out without actually running it, you can just comment it out with two slashes before it.
  • If you have several lines of code that you want to comment out and don’t want to have two slashes before every single line (that could take awhile), you can use /* at the beginning, and then */ at the end, which will comment out a chunk of code. Look at the last picture for an example!
Comment Creation1
Comment Creation2
Comment Creation3
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