Xcode documentation comment syntax

Question

I was wondering if someone could explain what/if there is any difference between the following two comment syntax in Xcode.

/**
 * comments
 */

/*!
 * comments
 */

It seems like both allow Xcode to display your comments as documentation but I'm not sure if there is a difference between the two.

It matters if there is a difference between the two – strikerdude10 Dec 04 '14 at 12:19 — strikerdude10, Dec 04 '14 at 12:19

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 16 '18 at 16:02

4

They are functionally equivalent. /*! is a HeaderDoc style opener and /** is a JavaDoc style opener commonly used by doxygen. Xcode 5 supports both HeaderDoc and doxygen/JavaDoc formats.

edited Dec 16 '18 at 16:02

albert

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answered Dec 04 '14 at 12:12

sbooth

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Both are equivalent by functionality.

Differences:

/**

Doxygen style
If you use headerdoc2html command, the /** based comments won't be present in the documentation file, it'll skip those comments (Refer HeaderDoc not generating HTML Documentation)

/*!

HeaderDoc style
If you use headerdoc2html command the /*! comments will be displayed on the documentation file in HTML format unlike /**

Xcode documentation comment syntax

2 Answers2

/**

/*!