NewLine in object summary

Question

Greetings

When setting a summary for a property / field / method etc.. is it possible to have a newline in it?

/// <summary>
/// This is line 1
/// This is line 2
/// </summary>
public bool TestLine { get; set; }

When I set this it shows as on mouse over:

bool TestLine
This is line 1 This is line 2

But I want it to show as:

bool TestLine
This is line 1 
This is line 2

I've tried using \n but that doesn't work. Is there any way to get this done?

score 249 · Accepted Answer · answered May 19 '11 at 14:44

249

You want to use some thing like this

/// <summary> 
/// Your Main comment 
/// <para>This is line 1</para> 
/// <para>This is line 2</para> 
/// </summary> 
public bool TestLine { get; set; }

answered May 19 '11 at 14:44

YetAnotherUser

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1

@YetAnotherUser, what about a blank line? – Behzad May 06 '13 at 18:18
1

@Behzad try using ` `. – YetAnotherUser May 06 '13 at 20:17
19

In the Visual Studio 2017 IDE, the above "solution" actually displays a lone BLANK LINE between line 1 and line 2 (that is, a newline after line 1 followed by a blank line then line 2)--this is not the same a new line, as the OP requested. Is that a bug in the VS 2017 IDE--or does everyone who up-voted not see that this answer doesn't produce what the OP shows as the desired output? – Jazimov Feb 02 '18 at 00:42
1

That's a new paragraph, not a new line. It feels to me that the documentation syntax is somewhat limiting. – GrizzlyMcBear Jul 17 '19 at 06:33

score 74 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '19 at 14:47

74

This may be an old thread but I was searching for an anwser while using Visual Studio 2019. I wanted paragraph and lines breaks. The following works well for me:

/// <summary>
/// <para>parameter name="guidType" options:</para>
/// <br>0 = SequentialAsString</br>
/// <br>1 = SequentialAsBinary</br>
/// <br>2 = SequentialAtEnd</br>
/// </summary>

Produces the following:

parameter name="guidType" options:

0 = SequentialAsString
1 = SequentialAsBinary
2 = SequentialAtEnd

answered Aug 23 '19 at 14:47

Thomas Cayne

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For VS2019 and on, this answer is technically more correct than the accepted answer. – Riaan Walters Sep 16 '19 at 14:30
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You can also just use
just at the end of the line in VS2019. These solutions produce an actual line break and not a new paragraph with an empty line! Thanks – Phillip Oct 31 '19 at 21:16
In Rider, everything behind the
tag is not displayed. But ending lines with works as expected – Tomasz Juszczak Mar 23 '21 at 15:42
Good answer, I would only suggest considering using `` for referencing your types – AbdulG Feb 23 '22 at 14:08

score 34 · Answer 3 · answered May 19 '11 at 14:45

34

Yes:

/// <summary> 
/// Main comment 
/// <para>Line 1</para> 
/// <para>Line 2</para> 
/// </summary> 
public bool TestLine { get; set; }

answered May 19 '11 at 14:45

Mitch Wheat

295,962
43
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score 16 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 26 '19 at 17:18

16

You can use <para /> to add a new line within summary:

/// <summary> 
/// Main comment<para />
/// Line 1<para />
/// Line 2<para />
/// </summary>
public bool TestLine { get; set; }

Looks like:

Main comment
Line 1
Line 2

Best regards!

answered Mar 26 '19 at 17:18

fdelgado

169
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Looks like: `Main comment

Line 1

Line 2` – Wolfzoon Dec 21 '21 at 11:33

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 04 '14 at 11:27

11

I would suggest using this formatting if you want multiple lines in the summary without making it complicated. It'll work if you use the tag after each line. (using it anywhere inside the text will make a new line where the tag is also.)

Although, note that if you have a space after the tag, you would get an extra space one the next line. So you wanna have the same amount of space on each line, so every row it'll be in a straight line.

/// <summary>
/// This is line 1<br />
/// This is line 2<br />
/// This is line 3<br />
/// </summary>
public bool TestLine { get; set; }

answered Apr 04 '14 at 11:27

Jonathan

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First thing I tried before looking a solution because that do not work! – Philippe Sep 12 '14 at 09:02
2

This does seem to work now. Using Visual Studio 2019. – Hammy Oct 26 '20 at 19:50
Just a note on this, the "&" character cant be used, it breaks the intellisense. – Feargal Kavanagh Feb 27 '23 at 12:13

score 8 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 22 '17 at 17:16

8

You can legitimately add para tags, but this actually creates a new paragraph for each new line and the line spacing appears off.
I personally add 1 para around the paragraph and then br tags at the end of the lines I wanted a break on, which preserves decent line spacing:

/// <summary> 
/// <para>Main comment<br /> 
/// Line 1<br />
/// Line 2</para> 
/// </summary>
public bool TestLine { get; set; }

edited Feb 22 '17 at 17:16

Amittai Shapira

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answered Jan 04 '13 at 11:05

PDizzle

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This doesn't work, and there's nothing off about the spacing with . What version of VS/.Net are you using? – Dani Feb 06 '13 at 17:02
2

HTML tags will be ignored by `summary`, even if they're inside `para` tag. – Lazaro Fernandes Lima Suleiman Oct 08 '15 at 21:07

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 28 '16 at 00:06

I'm just adding this for anyone using Xamarin Studio like I am. I found that none of the above solutions work for me, but this one did:

/// <summary>
/// Main summarry line.
/// <para></para>
/// <para></para>
/// Your secondary summary
/// </summary>

This gives the following output:

Summary  
Main summary line.

Your secondary summary

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 20 '18 at 11:31

If you are using Swashbuckle (Swagger Web API integration library) then <para></para> should be replaced with  and   also could be used.

so the following

    /// <para>
    ///     Flag1, Flag2
    ///     - bool flags, optional.
    /// </para>

becomes

    /// <p>
    ///     Flag1, Flag2<br/>
    ///     - bool flags, optional.
    /// </p>

The issue is already described here: How to add line break to Swashbuckle documentation? - using a special config, domaindrivendev's comment, https://github.com/domaindrivendev/Swashbuckle/issues/258 - on   usage.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 05 '23 at 19:15

Something I didn't see elsewhere in this thread is that there is a difference between <para></para> and  .

<para> will add a second newline above the text. So you'll end up with text>empty newline>text.

  will only add a single newline. So you'll end up with text>text.

So, IMO, br is better for lists and para is better for breaking up lines.

NewLine in object summary

9 Answers9