C# method parameter XML-documentation issue

Question

Assume, i have a method which parameters are classes with already defined documentation:

/// <summary>
///     Get criterion from table.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="plySide"></param>
/// <param name="criterionType"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public Criterion GetCriterion(PlySide plySide, CriterionType criterionType)
{
   // some code
}

PlySide class has it's own xml-documentation:

/// <summary>
///     Sides of monoply.
/// </summary>
public enum PlySide
{
   // some code
}

As you can see in GetCriterion method i didn't define any doc for the plySide param tag. My question is should i duplicate description of a parameter or should i remove param tags?

Answer 1

You shouldn't duplicate it but give a context aware description of the parameter. In your case it could be something like this (perhaps it's toally wrong, but I don't know the implementation and intention of your method):

/// <summary>
///     Get criterion from table.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="plySide">Monopoly side to get criterion for</param>
/// <param name="criterionType">Criterion to get for the given monopoly side</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public Criterion GetCriterion(PlySide plySide, CriterionType criterionType)
{
   // some code
}

Answer 2

The PlySide documentation will describe what the type is .

The plySide documentation should describe what role that parameter plays within the GetCriterion method.

Those will usually be subtly (or not so subtly) different.