Doxygen

XML Commands

Doxygen supports most of the XML commands that are typically used in C# code comments. The XML tags are defined in Appendix E of the ECMA-334 standard, which defines the C# language. Unfortunately, the specification is not very precise and a number of the examples given are of poor quality.

Here is the list of tags supported by doxygen:

- `<c>` Identifies inline text that should be rendered as a piece of code. Similar to using `<tt>`text`</tt>`.
- `<code>` Set one or more lines of source code or program output. Note that this command behaves like \code ... \endcode for C# code, but it behaves like the HTML equivalent `<code>...</code>` for other languages.
- `<description>` Part of a `<list>` command, describes an item.
- `<example>` Marks a block of text as an example, ignored by doxygen.
- `<exception cref="member">` Identifies the exception a method can throw.
- `<include>` Can be used to import a piece of XML from an external file. Ignored by doxygen at the moment.
- `<inheritdoc>` Can be used to insert the documentation of a member of a base class into the documentation of a member of a derived class that reimplements it.
- `<item>` List item. Can only be used inside a `<list>` context.
- `<list type="type">` Starts a list, supported types are `bullet` or `number` and `table`. A list consists of a number of `<item>` tags. A list of type table, is a two column table which can have a header.
- `<listheader>` Starts the header of a list of type "table".
- `<para>` Identifies a paragraph of text.
- `<param name="paramName">` Marks a piece of text as the documentation for parameter "paramName". Similar to using \param.
- `<paramref name="paramName">` Refers to a parameter with name "paramName". Similar to using \a.
- `<permission>` Identifies the security accessibility of a member. Ignored by doxygen.
- `<remarks>` Identifies the detailed description.
- `<returns>` Marks a piece of text as the return value of a function or method. Similar to using \return.
- `<see cref="member">` Refers to a member. Similar to \ref.
- `<seealso cref="member">` Starts a "See also" section referring to "member". Similar to using \sa member.
- `<summary>` Identifies the brief description. Similar to using \brief.
- `<term>` Part of a `<list>` command.
- `<typeparam name="paramName">` Marks a piece of text as the documentation for type parameter "paramName". Similar to using \param.
- `<typeparamref name="paramName">` Refers to a parameter with name "paramName". Similar to using \a.
- `<value>` Identifies a property. Ignored by doxygen.
- `<![CDATA[...]]>` The text inside this tag (on the ...) is handled as normal doxygen comment except for the XML special characters `<`, `>` and `&` that are used as if they were escaped.

Here is an example of a typical piece of code using some of the above commands:

/// <summary>
/// A search engine.
/// </summary>
class Engine
{
/// <summary>
/// The Search method takes a series of parameters to specify the search criterion
/// and returns a dataset containing the result set.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="connectionString">the connection string to connect to the
/// database holding the content to search</param>
/// <param name="maxRows">The maximum number of rows to
/// return in the result set</param>
/// <param name="searchString">The text that we are searching for</param>
/// <returns>A DataSet instance containing the matching rows. It contains a maximum
/// number of rows specified by the maxRows parameter</returns>
public DataSet Search(string connectionString, int maxRows, int searchString)
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
return ds;
}
}

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