Comments

Introduction#

Any decent programming language supports comments. In VHDL they are especially important because understanding a VHDL code, even moderately sophisticated, is frequently challenging.

Single line comments

A single line comment starts with two hyphens (--) and extends up to the end of the line. Example :

-- This process models the state register
process(clock, aresetn)
begin
  if aresetn = '0' then         -- Active low, asynchronous reset
    state <= IDLE;
  elsif rising_edge(clock) then -- Synchronized on the rising edge of the clock
    state <= next_state;
  end if;
end process;

Delimited comments

Starting with VHDL 2008, a comment can also extend on several lines. Multi-lines comments start with /* and end with */. Example :

/* This process models the state register.
   It has an active low, asynchronous reset
   and is synchronized on the rising edge
   of the clock. */
process(clock, aresetn)
begin
  if aresetn = '0' then
    state <= IDLE;
  elsif rising_edge(clock) then
    state <= next_state;
  end if;
end process;

Delimited comments can also be used on less than a line:

-- Finally, we decided to skip the reset...
process(clock/*, aresetn*/)
begin
  /*if aresetn = '0' then
    state <= IDLE;
  els*/if rising_edge(clock) then
    state <= next_state;
  end if;
end process;

Nested comments

Starting a new comment (single line or delimited) inside a comment (single line or delimited) has no effect and is ignored. Examples:

-- This is a single-line comment. This second -- has no special meaning.

-- This is a single-line comment. This /* has no special meaning.

/* This is not a
single-line comment.
And this -- has no
special meaning. */

/* This is not a
single-line comment.
And this second /* has no
special meaning. */