Commented blocks/indents interfering with code

Question

The problem is best explained by just showing the code:

a = True
b = True
while True:
    """
    A
    """
    if a == True:
        pass
    """
    B
    """
    elif b == True:
        pass

The issue being that there is a syntax error at "elif b", though when removing the comments, the issue disappears. I tried removing the indents on the comments which resulted in an expected indent on the closing comment line after "A". I know I could switch to using "#" to comment sections, though """ makes things much clearer and is more convenient for large chunks. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, I would appreciate any help.

Answer 1

String literals aren't comments. You can sometimes sort of pretend they're comments, but they're not, and the fact that they're not is finally biting you.

An elif has to appear immediately after the end of the block associated with the preceding if or elif . There can be comments and whitespace in between, but no statements, and strings count. Use real comments, with # .

If you really want to keep pretending strings are comments, you can indent the B string into the body of the if , but it won't line up cleanly with the block it's intended to be a comment on, and you'll just keep having to mess with your formatting to patch up the differences between comments and string literals.

Answer 2

You're creating a new string when you use """triple quotes""" . So, you essentially have an un-indented block of code before your elif, which requires a preceding if statement. The improper tabbing on the quotes ends your if block. Once your parser reaches the elif block, it doesn't have a matching if block, hence the error.

Triplequotes are used as docstrings in places, and can act like comments, but they're not actually comments.

Reference (search for """)