How do I comment out a block of tags in XML?

Question

How do I comment out a block of tags in XML?

I.e. How can I comment out <staticText> and everything inside it, in the code below?

  <detail>
    <band height="20">
      <staticText>
        <reportElement x="180" y="0" width="200" height="20"/>
        <text><![CDATA[Hello World!]]></text>
      </staticText>
    </band>
  </detail>

I could use <!-- staticText--> but that's just for single tags (as what I know), like // in Java and C. I would like something more like how /** comment **/ can be used in Java and C, so I can comment out longer blocks of XML code.

Solution 1

You can use that style of comment across multiple lines (which exists also in HTML)

<detail>
    <band height="20">
    <!--
      Hello,
         I am a multi-line XML comment
         <staticText>
            <reportElement x="180" y="0" width="200" height="20"/>
            <text><![CDATA[Hello World!]]></text>
          </staticText>
      -->
     </band>
</detail>

Solution 2

You can wrap the text with a non-existing processing-instruction, e.g.:

<detail>
<?ignore
  <band height="20">
    <staticText>
      <reportElement x="180" y="0" width="200" height="20"/>
      <text><![CDATA[Hello World!]]></text>
    </staticText>
  </band>
?>
</detail>

Nested processing instructions are not allowed and '?>' ends the processing instruction (see http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-pi)

Solution 3

If you ask, because you got errors with the <!-- --> syntax, it's most likely the CDATA section (and there the ]]> part), that then lies in the middle of the comment. It should not make a difference, but ideal and real world can be quite a bit apart, sometimes (especially when it comes to XML processing).

Try to change the ]]>, too:

  <!--detail>
    <band height="20">
      <staticText>
        <reportElement x="180" y="0" width="200" height="20"/>
        <text><![CDATA[Hello World!]--><!--]></text>
      </staticText>
    </band>
  </detail-->

Another thing, that comes to mind: If the content of your XML somewhere contains two hyphens, the comment immediately ends there:

<!-- <a> This is strange -- but true!</a> -->
--------------------------^ comment ends here

That's quite a common pitfall. It's inherited from the way SGML handles comments. (Read the XML spec on this topic)

Solution 4

Actually, you can use the <!--...--> format with multi-lines or tags:

<!--
  ...
  ...
  ...
-->

Solution 5

Here for commenting we have to write like below:

<!-- Your comment here -->

Shortcuts for IntelliJ Idea and Eclipse

For Windows & Linux:

Shortcut for Commenting a single line:

Ctrl + /

Shortcut for Commenting multiple lines:

Ctrl + Shift + /

For Mac:

Shortcut for Commenting a single line:

cmnd + /

Shortcut for Commenting multiple lines:

cmnd + Shift + /

One thing you have to keep in mind that, you can't comment an attribute of an XML tag. For Example:

<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    <!--android:text="Hello.."-->
    android:textStyle="bold" />

Here, TextView is a XML Tag and text is an attribute of that tag. You can't comment attributes of an XML Tag. You have to comment the full XML Tag. For Example:

<!--<TextView
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Hello.."
    android:textStyle="bold" />-->

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