Title: “Docstrings Demystified: Exploring Python’s Built-In Documentation Tool with Examples”

Introduction

Good documentation is the backbone of accessible and maintainable code. Python, being a language known for its simplicity and readability, offers an integrated solution for code documentation through “docstrings”. In this article, we dive deep into Python docstrings, illustrating their usage through detailed examples.

What Are Docstrings?

A docstring is a descriptive text written as a comment at the beginning of a Python function, method, class, or module. Defined by enclosing text between triple quotes ''' or """, docstrings are Python's way of adding annotations to the code.

Here’s a simple single-line docstring:

def greet():
    """Prints a greeting message."""
    print("Hello, world!")

The Role of Docstrings

Explaining Code Functionality

A docstring is primarily used to explain what a piece of code does, describing its function, its inputs and outputs, and other essential details. This is vital when others are using your code or even when you return to it after some time.

Providing Inline Documentation