Note that it is good practice to use "docstrings" in python: def demo(): """I'm a demo. Maybe a few lines of doctests below. """ re

Note that it is good practice to use "docstrings" in python: def demo(): """I'm a demo. Maybe a few lines of doctests below. """ return 42 You can now, for example in ipython do: help(demo) and get the demo.__doc__ back. See also doctests. So no, they are not comments - they are part of the code -- but they are often used to comment on, and document the code. docstrings pep: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/ https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/ docstring definition from the python docs: https://docs.python.org/3.5/glossary.html#term-docstring https://docs.python.org/3.5/glossary.html#term-docstring doctest: https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/doctest.html?highlight=docstring https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/doctest.html?highlight=d...