Which C# XML documentation comment tag is used for 'true', 'false' and 'null'?

Question

Which C# XML documentation comment tag is used for the literals true, false and null?

In Microsoft's own documentation, these literals appear in bold text. For example, the documentation for the property ArrayList.IsFixedSize appears as:

true if the ArrayList has a fixed size; otherwise, false. The default is false.

None of Microsoft's Recommended Tags seem to apply to this situation. The best fit appears to be <c>, however <c>true</c> appears as true when the documentation is rendered by Doxygen.

However, using <b>true</b> with Doxygen yielded bold text as I surmised that it might. But that leaves me wondering about the portability of using standard HTML tags with other documentation generation tools such as Sandcastle and GhostDoc.

I am using the for all the boolean and its what is the standard that we follow to represent the bool values in the comments. — Saravanan, Jan 23 '14 at 21:05
You can also use e.g. ``. But it's not in bold text for me (I use Sandcastle), the font is in blue instead. — fedab, Oct 06 '14 at 10:07

score 81 · Accepted Answer · edited May 08 '20 at 11:06

81

You should use the <see langword="true"/> entry so that it works right for whatever language is being used.

edited May 08 '20 at 11:06

phoenix

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answered Sep 17 '18 at 20:46

Gargoyle

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In Microsoft's updated documentation on the page **Recommended XML tags for C# documentation comments**, see the topic [Generate links and references](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/xmldoc/recommended-tags#generate-links-and-references) which states for **see**: `langword="keyword"`: A language keyword, such as `true` or one of the other valid [keywords](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/keywords/). – DavidRR May 05 '23 at 21:49

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 07 '19 at 09:38

19

Per GhostDoc's behavior, <c>true</c> is the correct answer. I've voted up saravanan's comment now that I've been able to confirm it.

edited Oct 07 '19 at 09:38

Xpleria

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answered Dec 11 '14 at 20:33

Jack Pines

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Which C# XML documentation comment tag is used for 'true', 'false' and 'null'?

2 Answers2